Delhi High Court rules doctors not responsible if patients do not respond to treatment

Delhi High Court rules doctors not responsible if patients do not respond to treatment From : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2309018/Delhi-High-Court-rules-doctors-responsible-patients-respond-treatment.html A Delhi High Court said a doctor cannot be held liable if the patient has not responded favourably to a treatment. The order came out after the court refused to frame charges against two doctors and three nurses of RBTB Hospital accused of causing a man's death due to negligence. Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said a doctor can be held liable for a patient's death only if the negligence so established is gross and not just based upon an error of judgment. The court further said even if the doctors were found guilty in departmental inquiry in the matter, it does not make them liable for criminal negligence as the standard of both the inquiries are different. It added that it was the court's obligation to ensure that doctors and medical practitioners are protected from frivolous and unjust prosecution and they be summoned only in cases of high degree of culpable criminal negligence. The case was filed against the medical professionals on the ground that Attar Mohammad, who was admitted to the hospital on June 26, 2002 in a critical condition, had died on June 29, 2002 due to gross negligence of the doctors and nurses on duty.