Pvt hospital, doc fined for medical negligence

Tribune News Service

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Amritsar, August 9

The consumer forum has slapped a penalty of Rs 5 lakh each on a private hospital and a doctor for medical negligence leading to the death of a 37-year-old resident who had visited them for treatment of viral hepatitis.

The doctor chose to treat the patient himself instead of referring him to gastroenterologist, which caused complications ultimately leading to his death. It has also directed the doctor and the hospital to pay Rs 5,000 as litigation expenses towards the case.

Ashok Bhandari, a resident of Mahindra Colony, had filed a complaint against Dr JS Sidhu and Parvati Devi Hospital stating that his son Rupesh Bhandari was admitted to the hospital on July 2, 2011, after he was suffering from high fever.

He accused Dr Sidhu of not having the necessary qualification in hepatology or gastroenterology for the treatment of the disease his son was suffering from. Bhandari alleged that due to the wrong treatment given by the doctor, the condition of his son deteriorated and he had to be shifted to another hospital on July 6, 2011. He said the ICU of the hospital was also not functioning at that time. Even after spending Rs 11.92 lakh at the second hospital, doctors could not save Rupesh who died on August 13, leaving behind his aged parents, wife and two little daughters. Bhandari stated that Dr Sidhu was misrepresenting facts of his qualification to people visiting the hospital as he had been mentioned himself as a gastroenterologist on hospital’s information board.

The forum in its judgment observed that if he (Dr Sidhu) was not a specialist in gastroenterology, he should have referred the patient to a gastroenterologist or other institution on the day of admission. The ICU of the hospital was not functioning properly to continue admission of a critical patient. It also amounts to negligence and deficiency in service.