Almost 600 complaints of medical negligence registered by patients with the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) are currently awaiting resolution. Shivkumar Utture, President of the MMC, said that the body receives around 100-125 complaints of medical negligence every year. In most of the cases, the matter is not really of negligence. However, the patients have grievances with the way their cases were handled. A majority of such cases get resolved amicably.

On Wednesday, the Pune City Police had booked 11 doctors of the Rasiklal M Dhariwal Heartcare and Research Institute, allegedly for causing death of a patient due to negligence while performing a heart surgery. A case was registered after an expert committee from the Sassoon Hospital submitted its report.

In Pune, complaints of negligence are assessed either by the expert from the Sassoon Hospital or by the MMC. Authorities at the Sassoon General Hospital mentioned that they receive about 20 to 30 complaints of medical negligence every month. In as much as 90 per cent of the cases, negligence is not established.

Utture stated that in some cases, strict decisions have been taken, often by the courts, where many of the disputes eventually land up.

Dilip Sarda, a member of the MMC executive committee, said that four committees had been set up to handle the pending cases, and these committees were handling nearly 60 cases every month. He added that they hope to achieve zero pendency in the next one year or so. He mentioned that most of the cases arise on account of ineffective communication between the doctor and the patient. This issue has surfaced repeatedly during the hearings. Sarda added that the pendency at the MMC occurred because for 12-13 years, the body had remained largely defunct, being governed by an administrator.

Interventional Cardiologist, Dr Jagdish Hiremath, said, “No doctor ever wants his or her patient to die. One has to realize that when such major cardiac surgeries take place, emotions are high. With 11 doctors, there are 11 checkpoints, and at each stage of the surgery, the doctor is doing his/her best. A patient might still not survive. There are known complications of any surgery and even if an aortic valve replacement has an almost 97 per cent success rate, there is still a three per cent chance that it might not succeed due to complications like blood-thinning and others.”

Another cardiologist stated that doctors need to make an extra effort to counsel the family members of the patient. It is important to inform the relatives that a minimally invasive surgery can be converted into an open heart one and that there could be complications. There could be bleeding even after the surgery. It is important to ensure that a communication process is underway with the relatives.