Rs 37-lakh blow for hospital

From The Telegraph
The family of a Tollywood director who died after undergoing bypass surgery at a reputable city hospital in 2007 has won a compensation claim of Rs 27 lakh for medical negligence, misinformation and false billing.

The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has slapped an additional fine of Rs 5 lakh on BM Birla Heart Research Centre in Alipore for publishing “misleading” advertisements and using the logo of an American institute — Cleveland Clinic Foundation — without having any operational tie-up.

The hospital has also been asked to pay the family of late Anjan Chowdhury an extra Rs 5 lakh as litigation cost. Officials said it was the highest payout ordered by the consumer forum against any private hospital in Bengal.

“We hope my father’s soul will now rest in peace,” Chumki Chowdhury, the director’s daughter, told Metro after Monday’s verdict.

The hospital said it would challenge the consumer forum’s ruling in court. “Chowdhury was a diabetic who was taken for a high-risk surgery with his family’s consent. Unfortunately, he died. We are not accepting this verdict and will move higher courts,” said a spokesperson for the institute.

Chowdhury, who had directed box-office hits like Shatru, Gurudakshina and Mejo Bou in a career spanning over two decades, was admitted to the Alipore institute on February 1, 2007, with chest pain and recommended a coronary artery bypass graft.

According to the complaint lodged by the 63-year-old director’s family, the hospital not only misled them into agreeing to the surgery but also did not tell them that he had slipped into a coma.

“My father was taken for a check-up but the doctors suggested that he be admitted immediately for surgery. After the surgery (on February 14, 2007), he slipped into a coma but the hospital authorities assured us that he was fine. When we checked the records later (Chowdhury was officially declared dead at 10.30pm on February 21), we found out that he was operated on thrice after his bypass, about which the authorities did not tell us,” said daughter Chumki.

The consumer forum held the hospital guilty of suppressing information about “surgical interventions” following the bypass.

The Rs 27 lakh that Chowdhury’s family is supposed to receive includes Rs 2 lakh for “arbitrary” billing and Rs 1 lakh for an HIV test being carried out without the patient’s consent. The Rs 5 lakh fine for misleading advertisements about accreditation to the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers would go into the State Consumer Welfare Fund.

I am sure the above decision of The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission must be heart warming for thousands of patients who have been at the receiving end of such malpractises and it will encourage them to take these vutures to the court more often.
I know that the Birlas are powerful and will take the matter to the High Court and maybe to the Supreme Court to get themselves acquitted like Dr Kunal Saha had to take his case to get justice for his wife Anuradha who was killed because of wrong treatment at AMRI and the Medical Council would not punish the guilty doctors.