With cordial patient doctor relationships taking a backseat. and a rise in cases of patients dragging doctors to court framing fictitious cases of negligence and cases of patients attacking doctors in the hospitals the need for strong legal knowledge has increased. Medical experts are demanding increased focus on medico legal cases and legal knowledge for doctors to defend themselves in court.
The medical fraternity wants urgent reforms in the medical curriculum, where the focus should be on legal cases. National Medical Commission's (NMC) Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) is partnering with state medical councils to teach medical practitioners as there has been an increase in such cases in the past five years.
Speaking to Education Times a health ministry official says, "Medical profession requires advanced education and training which calls for continuous updating. A doc- tor has ethical and legal obligations, and he needs to abide by the laws of the land while discharging his duties. In futu- re, like in the United States there will be more cases where doctors will be sued by their patients. Therefore if the patients are aware of their rights, doctors should also be aware of their rights. The future medical students must be taught how to document everything they prescribe and deal with female patients. There must be enough evidence to grant bail to the doctors, in fictitious legal cases. For this, the doctors must have a basic idea of medico legal cases.
AICTE nod no longer needed for tech progs in onlin ODL mode
The UGC recently announced that central, state and privat universities will no longer require prior approval from the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) along with their application to UGC for offering undergraduate, postgraduate and PG diploma programmes in open distance learning (ODD or in online mode. However, deemed to be universities would have to continue to take prior approval/recom- mendation/NOC of AICTE for offering of such programmes in ODL or online mode before submitting their application to the Commission.
If patients are aware of their rights, doctors should also be empowered
At present, the Medical Council of India (MCI) recei- ves over 100 cases of medico legal cases every year. There is a growing mistrust of the medical fraternity by a certa- in section of patients. This is due to an increase in the commercialisation of hospitals and medical services, adds the official.Several agencies are teaching the fundamentals of medical laws which are attended by doctors. Medical students get partial knowledge about India's legal and medico legal system in PG Forensic medicine, which is not sufficient to deal with several complicated civil cases. Students must be exposed to the law especially in violence and assault on doctors. In the dynamic world of medicine the courses need to be reformed to prepare future dotors for every situation. The NMC is now receiving lots of complaints from state medical councils regarding doctors being harassed by pa- tients and their relatives the health ministry official added. Recently the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) partnered with the NMC's EMRB to teach doctors on managing the medico legal issues.
Dr Vinky Rughwani, administrator of MMC says that there is a growing demand among doctors for guidance on handling medico legal cases. NMC officials came to Mumbai to train doctors and medical students about the medico legal cases regarding misconduct, lodging police complaints and dealing with complaints from the patients.Furthermore doctors must learn about what constitutes medical negligence. The workshop featured interactive sessions case studies, and practical exercises, offering practicing doctors a hands on learning experience. As many as 150 representatives from medical colleges and district hospitals participated in the workshop held last week. We plan to expand the legal knowledge to the district level in future.
The medical practitioners must be sensitised about the law as frivolous cases are also registered against them, he says. Delhi has around 50 medico legal cases pending against doctors in various hospitals. Dr Aviral Mathur president Federation of Resident Doctors Association of India (FORDA) says There is a lack of clarity in medico legal cases and medical laws. Since more cases are being lodged, it is time that students and se- asoned doctors learn about it. The lack of knowledge about the medico legal aspects is scarce amongst the medical students and medical practitioners giving rise to confusion while dealing with cases of violation of ethics and human rights in hospitals.
Dr Mathur suggests compulsory dedicated chapters on medical law for future doctors. Resident doctors in govern- ment hospitals have little or no knowledge about how to deal with such legal crisis. Private hospitals have a team of legal experts says Dr Mathur.
Medico legal cases can be classified into civil criminal ethical and corporate. Most of the cases filed against doctors are civil involving financial compensation. We often come across relatives of patients, who press charges against the doctor and question the doctor's intent and leverage negligence only to extract money. People use the law as a weapon to strong arm the doctors. Here the doctors must have legal knowledge and official paperwork to defend themselves from false cases says Dr Mathur.
At present MBBS students start studying legal cases in their second year which includes forensic medicine and toxicology.
Publiction on: Eduction Times
Date: 22.04.204
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