Medical emergencies can come knocking any day – whether it is a weekend or a public holiday. Law mandates that hospitals must be equipped with medical and para-medical staff, along with availability of diagnostics on any given day. A hospital was recently held negligent in this case for not following suit.
A patient, with history of diabetes, was taken to hospital due to some medical complications. There were hardly enough doctors to look after the patient population – it was a weekend.
Patient was treated by a nurse, who was given instructions by one of the busy doctors available during that time. Unfortunately, the patient died two days later.
Her husband sued the hospital and alleged that neither proper treatment was rendered to his wife nor any tests were performed to diagnose her condition.
The hospital stated in defence that there was paucity of doctors since it was a weekend and the patient could not be shifted to ICU due to non-availability of ventilators. Surprisingly, it was also stated that the patient’s husband could have taken her to some other hospital if he was not satisfied with the treatment!
The National Commission perused State Consumer Commission’s order, along with an expert committee’s recommendation. The top Consumer Court upheld lower court’s order which held the hospital negligent.
The Court denied hospital’s justification about shortage of doctors on account of a weekend. The Court also observed that necessary tests were not performed and even medical records were not maintained properly.
Evidently, there can be no excuses – legally speaking – about holidays or weekends when delivering patient care.
Source : Order pronounced by National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission on 21st July, 2023.