New Delhi: Three fathers who lost a child each to alleged medical negligence and a patients’ rights group have asked the Union health ministry to establish new mechanisms to address complaints of negligence.
The existing institutional mechanisms to protect patients has failed and broken down, their letter to minister J.P. Nadda and health officials on Saturday said.
The parents and the rights group, the All India Drug Action Network, have sought government intervention to help patients’ families who are struggling against what they say are systems "rigged against them".
"The failure and utter breakdown of institutional mechanisms meant to protect and support patients, particularly (the various) committees for investigating complaints, results in hardship for families trying to engage a system rigged against them," they said.
While patients’ families can now turn to the state medical councils, Medical Council of India, consumer courts or police with complaints against doctors or hospitals, the letter says the existing system "relies overwhelmingly" on the judgement of doctors who are reluctant to hold their peers accountable.
"When the watchdogs such as medical councils turn against us, whom do we turn to? We need completely new mechanisms in place," said Jayant Singh, one of the three fathers, who lost his seven-year-old daughter last year after the child had been treated at a Gurgaon hospital.
An investigation into the hospital’s conduct had revealed multiple lapses, including attempts to forge the parents’ signatures, and recommended action against several doctors. But, Singh said, the Medical Council of India has so far refused to take cognisance of the probe committee’s report or his complaint.
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