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Consumer panel faults hospital

CUTTACK: In a remarkable judgment, the Orissa Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission on Thursday pulled up Ispat General Hospital (IGH) of Rourkela for ‘negligence in treatment’ and slapped a fine of Rs. 2 lakhs on it. The court asked the hospital to pay the amount to the family of a 23-year-old woman who died in October 1992 while undergoing treatment in the hospital.

The court found the hospital not acting in accordance with the practice accepted as proper of the medical skill after obtaining opinions from an expert in the field. Commission chairman Justice R.K. Patra and its member Subash Mahatab in their judgment directed the hospital to pay the amount to the husband of the victim by November 30 failing which an interest at the rate of 9 per cent per annum shall be payable from the date of the death of the patient, the judgment said.

Saida Begum of Khurda district, while staying in Rourkela, was admitted to the hospital for delivery. After two days of her admission, the doctors through caesarean removed a stillborn baby. The doctors subsequently noticed that the uterus of the patient was ruptured which was also removed along with a 1.5 kg of blood clot from her abdominal cavity. But the patient died immediately after six hours of surgery.

Alleging negligence in treatment, Saida’s husband Dauda Khan and her two minor children moved the consumer court claiming compensation from the hospital.

When the hospital authorities denied the allegations, the court sought an expert’s view on it. A Cuttack-based gynaecology professor after perusing the relevant papers had opined that the life of the patient could have been saved had the doctors monitored the condition of the patient closely.

Basing on the views expressed by the expert, the consumer court came down heavily on the hospital and held it guilty.

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