Kin join hands, seek fair probe in cases of medical negligence

GURUGRAM/DELHI: Four families, who claim their loved ones were victims of medical negligence, came together in Delhi on Saturday to start a initiative, Campaign for Dignified and Affordable Healthcare, which will provide a forum to patients and families, civil society groups and health experts to demand reforms to ensure ethical treatment of patients and regulation of the private healthcare sector.
The families sent letters to Union health minister JP Nadda and state health minister Anil Vij, seeking changes in how complaints of negligence are dealt with, rights of patients, access to information etc.
Jayant Singh, the father of 7-year-old Adya who died in September 2017 after undergoing treatment for dengue at a private hospital in the city, has been receiving calls from relatives of several patients for the past few months. “They have one query: how did you manage to get a full report on the case?” said Jayant who is a part of the campaign. The interactions brought out that people who suspected medical negligence in the death of loved ones had realised that proving it was a mammoth task. Adya’s case had come to Nadda’s attention which paved the way for a thorough inquiry but in other cases, request for investigation leads to a short report, which doesn’t even include testimonies of doctors or hospitals. This forces families into long legal battles and keeps them running from one agency to another.
Gopendra Singh, whose 7-year-old son Shourya Pratap died in a private hospital in November 2017 after being diagnosed with dengue shock syndrome, was another signatory to the letters which demand “clear procedures and norms for investigating patient complaints” and making final reports available in the public domain.
“The main problem is that policemen who investigate cases do not have domain knowledge,” said Piyush Chhabra, the advocate of Pankaj Arora who is part of the campaign. His 10-year-old son died after undergoing a liver transplant in a private hospital in 2011. An FIR was registered in the case in 2014 but it was soon quashed after PGI Chandigarh submitted a half-page report on the case.
The demands include a state-level body to monitor the operations of district medical boards. “This body should also make policy recommendations to address any systemic ethical and legal violations,” said the letter, adding, “In the event that there are repeated complaints against a hospital or group of hospitals... the audit team should be empowered to conduct a broad, in-depth investigation.”
The fourth signatory was the family of Bhim Singh (62) who has been paralysed since 2016 after a gall bladder operation in a private hospital.