Panel fines hospital, 2 doctors for ‘unfair trade practice’

NEW DELHI: The apex consumer commission, NCDRC, has slapped Rs 10-lakh fine on Delhi-based Jaipur Golden Hospital and another Rs 5 lakh on two doctors for “unfair trade practice”. The hospital admitted a patient in December 2006 where he underwent renal/kidney transplant four months later, even though the hospital didn’t have the licence to carry out such operations, the commission found.

The commission, however, dismissed Rohtak-based businessman Mulkh Raj’s contention of medical negligence, which, he said, resulted in graft dysfunction. The single-member bench of Dr S M Kantikar relied upon findings of the AIIMS medical board and the Delhi Medical Council, which looked into the case.

However, in his order passed last week, Kantikar said: “In my view, the hospital, before accepting the patient for RT, was duty-bound to disclose the status of their licence or refer the patient to an authorised institute. The non-disclosure amounts to an unfair trade practice by the hospital and as well as the treating doctors.”

The complainant submitted that the hospital didn’t have a valid licence during the period when he underwent renal transplant. There was no full-time nephrologist. Even Delhi Medical Council and Medical Council of India had made strong observations on this point.

Rejecting the hospital’s argument that they had held licence in the past, Kantikar said: “By an institution purporting to having held a licence in the past for certain medical procedures or interventions does not automatically bestow any privileges or an unrestricted licence to continue doing such procedure/s once their licence has expired or revoked or suspended or anything which has the same or similar effect. Would an airline company allow a pilot to fly its airline with several hundred passengers in absence of a pilot`s license or where a license has been revoked or suspended? The answer will be a resounding No.”