Hyderabad: No action has been taken against doctors by the Telangana Medical Council or the state government in cases of medical negligence, and activists want to know the reasons for the same.
The most glaring are the cases of the limb lengthening surgery of Mr Nikhil Reddy, end-stage chemotherapy for oral cancer patient Abdul Rehman Bin Hyder, and loss of sight following cataract surgeries of six patients in SD Eye Hospital among others.
Mr Mujtaba Askari who had filed an RTI application said, “There is a delay at the government level and also at the Medical Council level in dealing with these cases. All of them are saying that inquiries are being conducted. But for how long, and when will they finally take action? Is there no one who is going to be held accountable for these cases?”
Cases in 2016 which are still pending.
In the case of oral cancer patient Mr Abdul Rehman Bin Hyder, the district medical and health officer, Hydera-bad, has not completed the inquiry against Terry’s Cancer Centre. Due to this the court hearing is postponed every time. Similarly, in Mr Nikhil Reddy’s case, the hearing of chief orthopaedic surgeon Dr G. Chandra Bhushan and the patient has been completed but the ethics committee of the Medi-cal Council has to further deliberate on the issue before giving a verdict.
Advocate M. Rasool Ahmed said, “There is no timeline set for any of these cases. The patients complain but the verification process and identifying whether it was medical negligence are often deliberated. The major issue is apathy on the part of the government department to conduct an inquiry and submit it to the court. Till the other side’s version is known, the cases can’t go further, which is one of the major reasons for delay.”
Dr Ravinder Reddy, chairman of the TS Medi-cal Council, said that the inquiries were at various stages and the ethics committee would deliberate over the various cases and then decide on a course of action.
