'Improper ratio of doctor-patients is deficiency in service'
The Delhi Consumer Commission has held that inadequate ratio of doctor and patient or nurse and patient in government or private hospitals amounts to deficiency in service.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Consumer Commission has held that inadequate ratio of doctor and patient or nurse and patient in government or private hospitals amounts to deficiency in service.
The Commission's observations came while upholding a district forum's order giving a compensation of Rs 50,000 to a retired Air Force officer, whose terminally ill wife had died at Army Base hospital here due to its failure to provide a female attendant to her.
"We have come across cases where the nurse-patient or doctor-patient ratio in government hospitals and even private nursing home is highly disproportionate or inadequate. This, in itself, amounts to deficiency in service," Commission President Justice J D Kapoor said.
The patient was "terminally ill, immobile and completely bed-ridden". Therefore, it was obligation of the hospital to provide a female attendant to her, it said.
The patient was neither provided with a female attendant nor allowed to keep her daughter to attend her, it noted.
Wing Commander (retd) K K Chaudhry was awarded the compensation with Rs 5,000 as cost by a district forum in 2006 after he filed a complaint before it alleging that his wife had died on account of criminal negligence.
He also accused the hospital authorities of making him spend money for getting his wife's CT scan test from outside, despite being entitled for free facility there.
In an appeal, the hospital authorities denied all the charges, saying the patient suffering from terminal stage cancer could not be saved.
The Commission, however, rejected the contentions of the hospital authorities and upheld district forum's order.
The Commission's observations came while upholding a district forum's order giving a compensation of Rs 50,000 to a retired Air Force officer, whose terminally ill wife had died at Army Base hospital here due to its failure to provide a female attendant to her.
"We have come across cases where the nurse-patient or doctor-patient ratio in government hospitals and even private nursing home is highly disproportionate or inadequate. This, in itself, amounts to deficiency in service," Commission President Justice J D Kapoor said.
The patient was "terminally ill, immobile and completely bed-ridden". Therefore, it was obligation of the hospital to provide a female attendant to her, it said.
The patient was neither provided with a female attendant nor allowed to keep her daughter to attend her, it noted.
Wing Commander (retd) K K Chaudhry was awarded the compensation with Rs 5,000 as cost by a district forum in 2006 after he filed a complaint before it alleging that his wife had died on account of criminal negligence.
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He also accused the hospital authorities of making him spend money for getting his wife's CT scan test from outside, despite being entitled for free facility there.
In an appeal, the hospital authorities denied all the charges, saying the patient suffering from terminal stage cancer could not be saved.
The Commission, however, rejected the contentions of the hospital authorities and upheld district forum's order.
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