Abstract

Medical malpractice refers to the negligent act or omission by a hospital, doctor or other health care personnel which causes an injury to the patient. Now, when harm is caused to the plaintiff, the people associated with the causation of such harm bear sole responsibility, also known as medical liability, to compensate for the same to the aggrieved party. It is a broader term which also includes acts of medical negligence within its ambit. This paper is organised into three parts. The first part elaborates on the terms ‘Medical Malpractice and ‘Medical Negligence’. This part tries to explain that while both these terms overlap with each other but they have some distinctions as well. The second part lays down the prerequisites or ingredients, namely the Existence of duty of care, breach of such duty of care and damages resulting from the such breach for establishing the tort of medical negligence. The third and the last part delves into the various remedies available to the aggrieved party against medical malpractice. The disciplinary remedy, the civil remedy and even the criminal liability can be invoked if any injury is caused by such negligence is expounded in the last part.

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