Nowadays, medical negligence has become an unescapable topic of attention and discussion in Bangladesh. Number of fatalities resulting from medical negligence is not insignificant in Bangladesh, though many cases remain unrevealed. In recent years, some serious instances of medical negligence occurred in Bangladesh have come to the public domain through media. A very tragic occurrence of medical negligence reported in the media was the death of 55 years old mother Rawshanara. She was a kidney patient admitted in the BSMMU in 2018. Her doctors removed the functional kidney with the infected one. Dr MridulKanti Chakraborty, a professor of University of Dhaka, was rushed to the Labaid Cardiac Hospital with dehydration in 2011. He died there before having proper treatment, due to doctor’s negligence. All the above incidents drew media attention where many remain unreported.
‘Right to life’ and ‘right to health’ are basic and fundamental human rights. Medical negligence is an obvious violation of right to health of the patients by professionals who are actually on duty to extend medical support to save their life. The great Greek physician, Hippocrates said “Whenever a doctor cannot do well, he must be kept away from doing harm.” This means that doctors are only to do good for their patients when emergency strikes and health rights of the patients are under threat.
A doctor should always maintain the highest standards of professional conduct. He must always keep in mind the obligation of preserving human life. According to the Declaration of Geneva adopted by the World Medical Association (WMA), a member of the medical profession shall gravely pledge stating that health of the patient will be the first consideration. It is evident that some doctors are not strictly follow professional conducts. Deviation from such professional conducts consequently paves to a frustrating situation of medical negligence. Medical negligence usually refers to a violation of the obligatory duty of care to the patient by a physician, dentist, nurse, medical assistant, pharmacist, or any other medical service provider.
Deaths due to inappropriate treatment, lack of treatment and medical negligence are sadly a common occurrence in our hospitals. Many incidents of medical negligence mostly go with no legal action. In Bangladesh, there is no specific and comprehensive law to prevent medical negligence yet. As a result, the incidents of medical negligence mostly going with no legal action often leads to violence.
In many countries, medical negligence is usually seen as an actionable civil wrong, the remedy for which is usually monetary compensation. In general law jurisprudence, it falls within the purview of the law of torts. Some countries deal with the matter generally under the law of torts, while some countries provide for separate legislation with specific judicial forum to redress such wrong. Medical negligence or malpractices, however, can sometimes give rise to criminal offences. Such crimes are usually dealt with by the country’s penal laws.
Currently, there is no specific Act on medical negligence in our country, but under different statutes some remedies are found. A victim has the opportunities get remedy under some statutes such as the Penal Code 1860, The Medical and Dental Council Act 1980, Consumers Protection Act 2009. But these statues are not adequate, specific and codified. So, the victims get confused in deciding that to which court they should go for lodge their complaints. Sometimes they don’t even know under which Act they can institute a suit against medical wrongdoers. We barely have the Law of Tort in Bangladesh as an Act, but provisions are available and enforced under different Acts.
Since there is no full-fledged legal forum to address medical negligence, most often people are not willing to seek redress of their grievances. A specific and comprehensive Act always helps the victims to get a legal remedy in a shortest possible time with a procedure easily understandable and accessible.
The deceptive medical practices in Bangladesh health sector is becoming a big challenge. Patients are the ultimate victims of medical negligence, and such negligence may cause losing their valuable lives. In order to mitigate the sufferings of aggrieved patients, the government must take immediate and necessary initiatives to enact a comprehensive and unique law to safeguard the right to life of the patients as to the constitutional mandate. The new law must determine and encompasses the procedure of practice, punishment of malpractice, duties and obligations of medical care providers aptly. The rights and remedies of the concerned patients must also be clearly and separately noted in the legislation.
Establishment of special health tribunal or court system is necessary to dispose the cases of medical negligence after enactment of such comprehensive acts. A medical negligence board may also be established under the new Act to provide expert assistance to the courts for speedy and effective remedy. A separate investigation department having certified knowledge on health issues, may also be established for investigati
Md. Khalilur Rahman Sajal
Executive Director
Voluntary Consumers Training and Awareness Society (VOCTA)
E-Mail: sajal.voctabangladesh@gmail.com