Medical profession aims to save lives, hence it is regarded as noble. Health, happiness, dignity, justice, and accountability are all promoted by medical ethics.
The idea of ethics is quite fluid, and not everyone in the world always adheres to the same moral standards. Nevertheless, diverse ethical rules are accepted without debate, which includes prohibitions against stealing, killing, adultery, and other wrongdoings with the patients.
Patients' psychological and physical well-being should always be honoured. It is worth remembering that medical ethics is not just the domain for clinical trials, a patient's legal rights and human rights are affiliated with it.
Numerous incidents of medical malpractice and medical negligence shows that the well accepted medical codes are regrettably insufficient to impede wrongful injury and harm to the patients.
Recently a little girl of only six years named Marufa Jahan Maisha died through a finger operation. Three of her fingers were burnt at the age of nine months -- as a consequence the burned fingers became curled. In order to repair them, she was being operated on.
After about 90 minutes, the hospital authority notified about the deterioration of Maisha's condition. They suggested she be taken to another hospital for ICU (Intensive Care Unit) support. For this purpose an ambulance was arranged; in the meanwhile, the hospital authority returned the treatment cost to Maisha's father without giving any document.
When taking her to the suggested hospital, Maisha was declared dead. Stitches were found in her lower abdomen though she was to be treated only for her fingers. About a week later, the hospital was shut down by the authorities.
This is certainly not the first case of wrongful death in Bangladesh due to medical negligence. Medical negligence denotes -- not maintaining the accepted medical standard of due care by any medical practitioner or any other concerned person doing medical practice. Lives have been endangered and irreparable harm has been caused because of medical negligence like wrong surgery, delayed diagnosis, surgical errors etc.
But day by day, the situation has become so alarming that those incidents should be addressed as “medical malpractice.” Medical malpractice refers to a situation where the healthcare professional is well aware of the possible consequences before making a mistake that led to an injury.
The death of Maisha is a discernible case of medical malpractice which demands repercussions. In this regard, shutting down the hospital and interrogating the doctors involved by the Directorate General of Health Services is a strong and necessary step to combat such an incident, and deserves to be appreciated.
Medical negligence has already been criminalized by laws of Bangladesh. Upon filing a complaint, an aggrieved person can seek remedy under the Penal Code or Consumer's Right Protection Act or may also claim civil remedy.
Though laws have been enacted regarding medical malpractice or medical negligence, none of them can be considered comprehensive. Too many laws also make the justice process complicated.
Laws are yet to be developed for improvement of the medical malpractice situation. For this purpose the following steps can be taken for ensuring justice and combating medical negligence and medical malpractice:
People need to be involved to seek justice; they need to know the remedies and legal protections available under law. Due to complexity of laws, high expense, and lack of knowledge, the justice process falls short. To increase involvement of people, a comprehensive and codified law should be implemented which must be well circulated. Mechanism to file the complaint online should be available at the website of the Bangladesh Medical & Dental council.
Provisions of tortious claim to get compensation and vicarious liability must be incorporated within the law to run a civil suit and criminal case parallelly. Alongside, scope of criminal liability needs to be broadened.
Both compensatory and punitive damages should be available under law where damages can be claimed for physical and psychological harm. Punitive damages punish the defendant and deter other members of the society from involving in similar conduct. Because justice must be seen to be done.
The “four principles” approach popularly known as principlism is followed by the West which is considered the standard for medical ethics; they are: a) the doctor knows best, b) welfare of the patients, c) not inflicting harm on others, and d) justice.
When medical practitioners fail to follow any of the above four principles, incidents of medical negligence or malpractice occur. But improvement of the situation is now necessary.
For that, those malpractices need to be stopped and prevented. Because after harm is caused or when a life is gone, no legal remedy is sufficient to compensate for the loss.
Protyasha Ahmed Mim is a freelance contributor and a graduate of law.
