An Overview of the Law of Medical Negligence with special reference to Various Judicial Precedents in India

The medical profession, which is known to be one of the noblest professions, has no immunity to negligence. Of late, Medical Negligence has emerged as one of the most crucial issues across the whole nation and keeps great impact in shaping the law of negligence. It is evidently a serious concern. According to statistics, around 52 lakhs of medical injuries are recorded every year in India and out of which 98,000 are of medical negligence, and around 11 people die every hour in this country due to this. Medical practitioners who are held liable for negligence or deficiency in service under The Consumer Protection Act, 1986, are not an exception to this rule. Medical negligence is also termed as medical malpractice that is an improper, unskilled, improper or negligent treatment of the patients by their physician, dentist, nurse or other health care professionals. In 1995, the Supreme Court brought the medical services within the ambit of “service” as defined in the Consumer Protection Act. This defined relationship between patients and medical professionals by giving contractual patients the power to sue doctors if they sustained injuries in the course of treatment in procedure free consumer protection courts for compensation. It is the duty of the doctor to take proper care and caution to avoid any mishap and any negligence which can have life-changing effects on the patients. The awareness among the public is increasing, and hospital management is facing complaints regarding the facilities, unprofessionalism of doctors, and the appropriateness of their therapeutic and diagnostic methods at an increasing rate. This paper delves into various intricate dimensions of medical negligence and tries to explain the topic in the light of tort law jurisprudence.