The
Hindu: Kolkata: Sunday, 06 September 2015.
Nearly ten
months after his 12- year- old daughter Suhana Yasmin died at a State-run SSKM
Hospital and he filed a police complaint of medical negligence, Ruhul Amin
Mondal got a letter from Director of Medical Education (DME), Government of
West Bengal.
The letter
signed by DME Sushanta Banerjee warns eight doctors and nine nurses of State
run super specialty hospital of severe punishment if the negligence is repeated
in future. The letter clearly states that the “patient died only for negligence
of duty lack of imitativeness and inhuman behaviour of doctors and sisters
involved in her treatment”
“I had
arranged blood but the doctors did not transfuse it for 24 hours. I lost my
daughter and they have been left off lightly with only a warning,” Mr. Mondal
told The Hindu from his residence at Swaroopnagar in State’s North 24 Parganas
district.
Suhana’s case
is just one of the many cases where patients have alleged medical negligence.
The website of West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) lists 376 cases of medical
negligence in Bengal till May 2015, which are at various stages of
investigation.
However, when
approached Dilip Kumar Ghosh, the registrar of WBMC said that the number of
complaints have crossed 500. “We are receiving more complaints and soon we will
publish an updated list on website,” Mr Ghosh said.
Meanwhile, in
a recent reply to information sought under Right to Information, Act, 2005 it
has been revealed that the WBMC has taken action against just four doctors in
the past four years.
Since 2000,
action has been taken against 25 doctors, the RTI query filed by an
organisation People for Better Treatment ( PBT) has revealed.
Interestingly,
in a note, members of the Medical Council of India have referred to three State
Medical Councils including WBMC of not deciding the complains filed to them in
a timely manner resulting in complainants directly approaching MCI directly.
Commenting of
the developments Kunal Saha, a doctor based in Ohio, US, who fought a long
legal battle before Supreme Court in October 2013 directed a private Kolkata
Hospital to pay highest ever compensation of Rs 11.5 crore for death of his
wife said that it is important that statistics related to complaints made to
the State Medical Councils come out.
Dr. Saha said
the complaints of medical negligence are not seriously looked by the State
medical council as the appointments to these bodies most of the time are
political in nature.
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