Medical malpractice is defined as a medical professional’s failure to satisfy the standards of his or her profession, resulting in the death of a patient who was counting on the medical professional to save her or his life. Medical negligence is the most heinous act a medical professional can commit, because it almost always leads in the patient’s death.
Negligence, according to Black’s Law Dictionary, is the failure to do something that a reasonable man, guided by the usual considerations that ordinarily rule human affairs, would do, or the doing of something that a reasonable and sensible man would not do. In legal terms, medical negligence is defined as a breach of a duty of care that causes harm. The damages could be monetary, health-related, degrading the patient’s condition, causing trauma to the patient, leaving the patient in an irreversible state for the remainder of his or her life, and so on.
India has inherited the ideas of English law, and the majority of the current laws in India are a direct result of the laws being inherited from English law. Bolam v. Friern Hospital Management Committee is an example of such a principle (1957).
However, the position was amended in the year 2001 when such a test was abandoned by English courts which made the requirements of medical negligence stricter; however, the Indian courts continued to follow the principles laid down in Bolam’s case. Medical negligence occurs when medical practitioners or doctors fail to provide adequate care and fail to take appropriate safeguards or measures, resulting in a breach of their duty that harms patients. It arises as a result of patients receiving ineffective, inept, or negligent care.
Every medical professional or doctor owes a duty of care to their patients, and when they fail to do so, the patients suffer harm, giving them the right to sue for negligence. Medical malpractice carries civil liability, criminal culpability, and disciplinary consequences.
