Dinesh Joshi was suffering from severe back pain for which he visited Dr Geeta Jindal. As the pain continued unabated, he was hospitalized. Dr Jindal billed Rs 36,450 for the treatment, which included ICU charges of Rs 12,500 and various items used for surgery.
Dinesh requested for discharge, and then got himself admitted to
Gokul Hospital
where he was operated upon and 600ml of pus was drained.
Later, he lodged a complaint against Dr Jindal with the Director General of Health Services, Haryana, who constituted a board to conduct an inquiry. Since the report favoured the doctor, Dinesh approached the Panchkula district forum. Dr Jindal contested the case and so did the scanning centre. The forum accepted the medical board's findings and exonerated Dr Jindal of negligence, but held the scan centre liable for incorrectly reporting that the fluid collection was insignificant. It ordered the scan centre and its insurer jointly and severally liable to pay Rs 20,000, with 9% interest. Dinesh approached the Haryana state commission, which upheld the order and dismissed the appeal. He then filed a revision petition. The National Commission observed that
the medical board
had not dealt with the grievance about wrong billing.
It also noted that Dr Jindal's
medical record
did not match her statement in the pleadings before the consumer forum. The commission noted that the civil surgeon had opined that surgical blade, gloves, micro set and other materials are used only in surgery, and yet Dr Jindal had billed Dinesh for these items without performing any surgery.
The commission found that Dr Jindal had wrongly charged for ICU and was also guilty of charging for items that had not been used. It concluded that Dr Jindal's conflicting statements revealed that there was medical negligence, and that she had also engaged in unfair trade practice by inflating the bill. Hence, the commission held her liable to pay Rs 3 lakh as compensations along with 9% interest.
(The author is a consumer activist and has won the Govt of India's National Youth Award for Consumer Protection. His email is jehangir.gai.columnist@outlook.in )