While there were several instances where patients were handed out justice and stern action has been taken against erring hospitals and doctors in medico-legal cases, the Telangana State Medical Council is yet to take a call on over 100 other cases still pending with them.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has halted the hearings for the past two years, the delay in appointment of full-fledged ethics committee has delayed the adjudication for further four months.

The ethics committee that deals with medical negligence cases against doctors and hospitals is not completely functional, resulting in a huge pendency of cases.

Dr. Chennamaneni Hanumantha Rao Telangana State Medical Council registrar said, “Around 90 to 100 complaints are pending with us. There were no hearings due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Even as the pandemic situation has eased, there is no ethics committee to hear the cases. We are waiting for the government to nominate the members.” “We have also received complaints from patients, who said that they were overcharged in hospitals. However, overcharging and billing doesn’t fall under our purview. Ethics committee only deals with medical negligence and misbehavior,” he added.

There were instances of doctors being suspended for issuing fake sick leave certificates. In 2017, a case of height growing surgery gone wrong was dealt with by the medical council.

The term of the previous committee has ended on November 2, following the court order. The state government nominates six persons, and Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences nominates two members, while four ex-officio members are automatically in the committee by their position. The members are divided into management committee, finance committee and ethics committee of medical council.

Dr E Ravinder Reddy, former chairman of Telangana State Medical Council said, “We served for five years. After the court order, we stopped going to the council. There is still a court case going on to decide whether the elections should be held for 5 or 13 members. Ex-officio committee members that comprise of director of medical education, director of health, commissioner of AP Vaidhya Vidhana Parishad, vice-chancellor of Health University are still in the committee.”

“We had to stop the physical hearings as the Covid may spread due to the crowd,” he said.

Interestingly, TSMC has no provisions for online hearing.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/100-medico-legal-cases-still-pending-with-med-council/articleshow/90003485.cms