¾ Medical practitioners delivering new service without
any consideration in a charitable hospital or medical
camps are exempted from the provisions under CPA
¾ As per clause 2(d) (ii) of the CPA 1986, a consumer
implies any person who hires or avails of any service
for a consideration, which has been paid or promised,
or partly paid and partly promised, or under any
system of deferred payment, and includes any
beneficiary of such services other than the person
who hires or avails of the service for consideration
paid or promised or partly paid and partly promised
or under any system of deferred payment, when such
services are availed of with the approval of the first
¾ The time limit stipulated for filing a complaint is 2 years
from the date of alleged negligence
¾ Patients can be dealt with severely if they file frivolous and
false complaints just to harass the medical practitioner
¾ Free services provided are exempted under CPA
¾ A laboratorian is also a consumer as he buys various
instruments, equipment, diagnostic kits/reagents/
devices. He too can file a complaint under CPA for any
defect or deficiency in service related to that purpose
¾ Ignorance is not held as an excuse as an established
legal principle. Concurrently, law does not expect a
very high degree of knowledge but expects only average
knowledge from a medical practitioner
¾ Medical negligence is a civil wrongdoing classified as
‘tort’, where a medical practitioner fails to take proper
care in respect of examination, diagnosis, investigation,
treatment, etc. resulting in injury or mortality
¾ Laboratorians are expected to keep all reports
confidential (legally and ethically). The reports can
be divulged to the referring clinician or to the patient
or the relatives of the patient (with patient’s onsent).
Reports pertaining to sexually transmitted diseases or
HIV/AIDS should be handed over only to the patient
¾ Legally, only authorized or registered blood banks can
supply units of blood. All mandatory information must
be clearly mentioned on the bottle label legibly
¾ These days doctors have ‘Malpractice Insurance Covers’.
In case a legal notice is received by such a doctor, he
should immediately notify the insurance company. The
insurance company must take all necessary actions in
such a case. The company should appoint a lawyer to
give reply or to take legal steps and inform the doctor
about it. The doctor, by permission of the company, can
appoint a lawyer of his choice
¾ What constitutes a legal notice? Any letter received by
a medical practitioner from a patient or a voluntary
registered organization or an advocate, demanding
explanation about treatment given or demanding some
explanation about treatment for alleged injury or death
¾ Section 27 of the Civil Procedure Code provides that
when a suit has been duly instituted, a summon may
be issued to the defendant to answer the claim, and
such summon is to be served in the prescribed manner.
When a complaint is lodged before the commission or
the forum, the defendant practitioner is informed by a
registered letter by the office, which is called a summon
in legal parlance. In this summon, time for the reply
and date of hearing is mentioned. Usually, the time
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