Mumbai: Form special police cell for medical negligence, suggests Bombay HC | Mumbai News - Times of Indiahttps://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-form-special-police-cell-for-medical-negligence-suggests-bombay-hc/articleshow/83446553.cms Content extracted from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-form-special-police-cell-for-medical-negligence-suggests-bombay-hc/articleshow/83446553.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-form-special-police-cell-for-medical-negligence-suggests-bombay-hc/articleshow/83446553.cmsMumbai: Form special police cell for medical negligence, suggests Bombay HC | Mumbai News - Times of India https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-form-special-police-cell-for-medical-negligence-suggests-bombay-hc/articleshow/83446553.cms
Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday told the Maharashtra government to consider setting up a specialised cell of police officers trained to handle complaints about medical negligence.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni, hearing a clutch of PILs on Covid-19 management, were informed on Thursday that doctors working in Covid-19 wards had received notices from various police stations regarding complaints made by the relatives of patients over the line of treatment.
An Indian Medical Association (Pune) doctor, referring to the tocilizumab shortage, said doctors should not be blamed for the state’s inefficiency to obtain essential drugs.
The judges said doctors are already overburdened and their concern is that after treating patients they should not be attacked. “You can’t have a doctor with a mentally disturbed mind treating patients,” said Justice Kulkarni.
The judges observed that treatment of a patient is a question of interpretation by individual doctors and added that police officers must be educated about the law laid down by the Supreme Court on the filing of an FIR in cognisable cases. They said just as special branches for cybercrime and economic offences, the state should set up a specialised cell to conduct the preliminary inquiry on a complaint to decide whether an FIR should be registered or not. “It is an age of specialisation now,” said Justice Kulkarni.
The judges asked the state government to take a decision and place it before the court at the next hearing.