Medico-Legal Aspects of Medical Negligence amongst Medical Students
Author(s): Swaranjali Gajbhiye* and Swapnil Patond
Abstract
With the temperament of the country, that God can still make mistakes, but medical professionals must not, doctors have had their share of being dragged to the court. The weight of preventing medico-legal issues in clinical practice which isn't handled so gracefully by the professionals, often results in medical negligence. Medical negligence expresses itself in the form of lack of standardized duty of care by the healthcare professional with medico-legal perspectives providing rights and justice to both, patients, as well as professionals. The lack of knowledge about the medico-legal aspects is scarce, not only amongst the commoners and non-medicos, but embarrassingly amongst the medical students and medical practitioners as well and though this seems to be a topic of little discussion and awareness, it has become a huge conundrum, which gives rise to mortality due to violation of ethics and basic human rights. To combat the hurdles faced by the professionals and to provide justice to the patients, exploring medico-legal aspects from all angles comes to the rescue. From really filling that 'communication gap' to inculcating values like empathy and compassion one can contribute in highlighting and bringing into practice, the simple, yet powerful principle of Hippocrates, 'primum non nocere' which translates to 'first, do no harm'. It is the need of the hour for an Indian Medical Graduate as well as all the medical students to be well versed about the application of law in healthcare as it would immensely improve the functioning of hospitals and would avoid inadequacies and malpractices.