How safe is institutional deliveries?
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 19, 2014 -
In an interview with Daily News and Analysis (DNA) India, Dr Sudarshan Ballal, a veteran Nephrologist as well as the Medical Director and Chairman of India’s third largest healthcare company, Mahipal Health Enterprises (Manipal Hospitals), had once observed that public faith in medical professionals has significantly eroded these days and that the medical fraternity is itself responsible for this situation.
When the interviewer asked about corruption which seems to have seeped into the noble profession, Dr Ballal candidly stated that what the doctors are these days is the reflection of the society we live in. With corruption everywhere today and money becoming such a ruling factor in the modern life, corruption is bound to be there is the doctor’s community as well.
“We are in an extremely noble profession and we don’t want to see corruption here, but unfortunately, the presence of it is there”, he admitted. Replying to another question on the instances of wrong diagnosis, treatment or surgery, etc by the doctors, Dr Ballal had stated, “I am sure there is truth to this, and I would lie if I say there is nothing like this. But as far as possible, the hospitals should follow honest and ethical practices of medicine....and it is our fundamental responsibility to ensure fair and honest practice.”
We have taken out these excerpts rather generously to drive home the point that medical profession is becoming not so noble as well in Manipur today with allegations of negligence by attending doctors leading to death of many patients coming up every now and then, which sometimes resulted in ugly confrontation between the doctors/hospital authorities and the irate patient’s party.
But the incident of leaving the body of a young woman who died after giving birth to a baby girl in front of the residence of a medical practitioner by the aggrieved family members and relatives was something not expected.
It is indeed very sad to know that when the Government of India is launching various schemes to encourage institutional deliveries, even to the extent of giving incentives with the main objective of bringing down mortality rate among the new born babies as well as the expectant mothers, Manipur has been witnessing death of women in delivery cases so frequently.
So, the recent incident of death of two women, one in RIMS and the other at JNIMS, in child delivery cases due to alleged negligence by their attending doctors has once again bring forth the question of how safe is the delivery of babies in Government hospitals in Manipur.
We understand that doctors are not god and to err is human, but death of patients, more particularly the expectant mothers or new born babies from negligence by their attending doctors is something unpardonable.
But unlike in western countries where there are strict legal provisions, based on which a patient who suffers injury or damage due to negligence of their doctors has the right to sue that medical practitioner in question, patients enjoy no such legal protections in Manipur.
In such a situation, hospital authorities have a greater role to play in restoring the eroding faith of the people by owning up the responsibility of their employees’ negligence and ensuring that similar unfortunate instances of medical negligence are not repeated.
But this could be possible only when inquiries into alleged medical negligence are conducted promptly instead of trying to shield the negligent doctors.
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