Mohali hospital told to pay Rs 8 lakh compensation for negligence

Mohali, July 2

The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed the chairman, managing director and medical superintendent, Max Hospital, to pay Rs 8 lakh in compensation to a Sector 15 family on account of medical negligence and for mental and physical pain and trauma suffered by the complainants during their 91-year-old mother’s treatment in 2020.

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission had awarded Rs 5 lakh in compensation; however, the state commission, in its impugned order on June 14, enhanced it to Rs 8 lakh.

The complainant, Akhilesh Kumar Sinha, 60, stated that his mother was admitted to the hospital on May 26, 2020, after she suffered a right leg femur fracture. He said the hospital gave her a total package of Rs 3.24 lakh for her treatment. Sinha said the hospital took a swab of the Covid-19 sample on May 26 and sent it to Max Hospital in Delhi, adding that they declared her Covid-19 positive on May 27, 2020. He said in the evening they shifted her to another ward by staff in PPE kits, which caused her mental trauma.

Later, when the complainant got the Covid-19 sample test conducted at PGI, it turned out to be negative.

“On the basis of the report the UT Health Department came to the residence of the complainants, put out a quarantine notice, and asked the complainants to head for Sector 16 General Hospital for Covid testing. Not only this, even the right hands of the complainants were stamped with a quarantine seal,” the order read.

Due to the report, the complainants were also put in illegal con?nement.

It was disclosed that 26 doctors and 20 nurses had attended the patient; however, all the aforesaid doctors or nurses who were in contact with the patient were not quarantined, nor were their tests. “In this manner, the administration of opposite party No. 1 had violated the standards laid down by the Ministry of Health and WHO,” the complaint read.

The complainant cleared all the bills to the tune of Rs 1,77,490, and accordingly, the patient was discharged from MAX Hospital on May 31, 2020. She died on June 3, 2020.

A spokesperson from MAX Hospital, “We have received a copy of the order from the SCDRC, and our legal team has gone through the documents. We have decided to file an appeal against the said order in the NCDRC.”