Medical negligence complaints against private hospital doctors in Gurugram have increased over the past four years but none of the them have been held accountable.
According to data provided by the district health department, the District Medical Negligence Board has received 272 complaints of medical negligence against doctors working at private hospitals from January 2019 to August 24, 2023.
Intrestingly, no case of medical negligence came to the fore against government doctors during the same period.
However, the department has refused to disclose the names of the private hospitals against which the complaints were registered.
“The names of private hospitals in these complaints are third-party information which can not be shared as per under section 11 of the RTI Act 2005,” the department said.
However, the District Medical Negligence Board has also claimed that out of 272 complaints 254 have been resolved and 18 medical negligence cases are still pending due to various official reasons.
Of the 272 complaints, 71 complaints were lodged in 2019, 45 in 2020, 81 in 2021, 48 in 2022 and 27 from January 1, 2023, to August 24, 2023.
The six-member medical negligence board includes the chief medical officer or his representative (chairman), the principal medical officer (member secretary), two specialists from the medical field concerned, the president of the Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) Gurugram chapter, and a member of the National Integrated Medical Association.
Health officials disclosed that the board is supposed to complete its inquiry in each case and submit a report within 60 days.
However, in many cases, the inquiry gets delayed due to backlog or because one of the parties is missing hearings or delaying the submission of documents.
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