Don’t refuse emergencies, doctors told
Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan have already enacted this rule
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-08-19 01:36 GMT
Hyderabad:It is the duty of every physician to treat emergency cases and they cannot arbitrarily refuse cases. However, this is not a law in either Andhra Pradesh or Telangana. Union health minister Dr Harsha Vardhan said that states like Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan have already enacted this rule and others are likely to follow suit as it is important that no physician should arbitrarily refuse a patient except when the patient is suffering from an ailment which is not within the range of the treating physician.
Chairman of Andhra Pradesh medical council, Dr Ravinder Reddy, said, “The regulation has been in existence but a paediatrician can’t be expected to stabilise a heart attack patient. Therefore, the general view taken is that the patient is checked and if found that the symptoms are very critical in nature, 108 can be called and they can be rushed to an emergency center immediately.”
This is the line being followed in the two states as doctors claim that with the Consumer Protection Act being constantly used against them, most of them are scared to even touch a patient. A senior doctor explained, “In residential colonies at night when relatives come in, as a doctor, one just checks the patient and asks them to rush to the hospital.
The option of stabilising does not work since if there are complications, then the attending doctor will be blamed by relatives. In hospitals there is a mechanism in place where there are counselors and also a large number of doctors to immediately attend to complications.”
Dr Ramesh Reddy, member of the Medical Council of India said, “The onus is on government hospitals to ensure that the patient gets a chance for a proper treatment. The clinical establishment act is clear that there must be available staff and facilities for medical examination and treatment for first aid. For this reason, the emergency centres in various districts must have these two aspects to ensure that the treatment is proper and by well-qualified staff.”