The National Medical Commission on Friday released its first publication, a booklet, titled “Professional Conduct Review - lessons from case archives” by Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB). In the booklet, the Commission said that to become a “Good Doctor”, a Registered Medical Practitioner (RMP) must deal with patients with compassion and empathy manner.

“Documentation is an integral part of avoiding litigations and it is important to understand the state of the family in catastrophic events and dealing with them with compassion and empathy manner – this will make a Registered Medical Practitioner (RMP) a ‘Good Doctor’,” said the NMC.

The booklet deals with the unique doctor-patient relationship through a series of nine cases and notes that the most common cause of complaints against doctors is due to a communication gap. It underlines that if there is a trust deficit, it will lead to litigation against the doctors.

The NMC is the apex regulatory body for medical education and practice in India. The Commission advocates for a continuous and open communication and advises that this channel must always be available in case of any emergency.

“In majority of cases doctors fail to explain to the patients and their relatives about diagnosis, treatment plan, etc. despite their good intentions. Also clinical diagnosis and the human body are very complex and in the realm of diagnosis and treatment, there is scope for genuine difference of opinion and one professional doctor is not negligent merely because his conclusion differs from that of another medical professional,” it explains.

Speaking about NMC latest venture, Dr. Yogender Malik said that members of EMRB said that the e-book draws from real-life examples and sheds light on professional errors and their consequences while offering valuable lessons to stakeholders, particularly medical practitioners.

“The aim is to enhance awareness, mitigate professional errors, and safeguard patients from potential ethical lapses,” he said.

Dr. Malik adds that often in real life “it’s very difficult for a patient to differentiate between ethics, conduct and negligence. Then there is the issue related to patient’s understanding of constraints of the hospital system. They don’t understand duty shifts of doctors and expect the same doctor to be available 24x7 for their patient, especially in corporate hospitals. The patients feel dejected when they don’t find the behaviour of doctor up to their expectations. Doctors too feel that patients have no right to complain unless there is harm.”

Apart from known causes of litigation against doctors like problem related to communication consent and medical records, etc., the NMC in the publication has also mentioned about new problem being faced which is fixing responsibility when the treatment is by a team of doctors.

“A doctor may attend only for a consultation and will not own responsibility for the rest of the treatment protocol. The problem of understanding with respect to differentiation of ethics, conduct and negligence exists even among experts. They sometimes go too deep into legal aspects of ethical problems by citing earlier court cases, that essence of the problem at hand is lost,” said the Commission.

The booklet further specifies that it is intentionally misleading to the patient who is not able to verify and discern the qualification and can lead to wrong diagnosis and harm to the patient. “This unethical practice can jeopardise the reputation of the medical fraternity in the eyes of the public and undermine trust in the profession,” it notes.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/medical-commission-releases-book-on-professional-ethics/article67388769.ece