Negligence and deficiency in service: Pay Rs 50K relief to patient, infertility centre told

Legal Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 3

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ordered Indira IVF Hospital Private Limited, Ferozepur Road, here, to pay compensation of Rs 50,000 to an aggrieved consumer on the account of negligence and deficiency in service.

Delivering the verdict, commission president Sanjeev Batra and its member Monika Bhagat held that the opposite party (the hospital) had shown undue haste in doing the IVF process with commercial angle in their mind.

Non-adoption of standard operating procedure with regard to Covid-19 amounts to negligence and adoption of unfair trade practice on the part of the opposite party, observed the Commission.

The orders came on a complaint moved by Davinder Arora, a resident of Bhai Himmat Singh Nagar, Dugri, Block-A, Ludhiana.The complainant has submitted that on July 31, 2020, he, along with his wife Sapna Arora, visited branch of Indira IVF Hospital at Ludhiana for IVF treatment. He deposited Rs.20,000 and after his admission, the first injection for IVF was administered. Before that scan, tests and Covid test were conducted.

??After returning home, his wife faced some reddish allergic reactions on the body and swelling on certain parts. Next day, they again visited the hospital for second injection and informed them about the reactions on her body but no reply was given by the person concerned.

On the morning of August 2, 2020, the complainant received a call from a junior doctor, who informed that his wife had been tested positive for Covid due to which they were not allowed in the clinic. He talked to doctor over phone but all in vain.

On August 27, 2020, the complainant asked for a refund of Rs 20,000 upon which he was told that only Rs 10,500 could be refunded as he was not satisfied with the services. However, no refund was given to the complainant.

Whereas, the opposite party refuted the allegations and termed it to be an attempt to extort money. They had advised to take treatment of the allergy from some hospital as they were running only Infertility Centre and not hospital. Cetrizine tablet was advised at that time. The refund offered by them was genuine as only that much amount was spent in purchasing injections for the complainant’s wife.

After hearing their statements, the Commission held that on July 31, 2020, the opposite party took swab samples and done procedure for Covid tests but without awaiting its result, the doctor started IVF procedure for stimulation and administered injections. Doctors were required to adopt a guarded and safe approach in IVF treatment and they could have waited for the outcome of the RT-PCR test and could have complied with guidelines pertaining to Covid-19, which shows their negligence.