Dr. Manoj Kumar Pathak, Professor & Head Department of Forensic Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences Banaras Hindu University

This magazine is one of its kind and deals with instruments. Instruments are a strong tool in defensive medicine practices as it depends mostly on lab test results. Instruments are indeed a powerful tool to protect an innocent practitioner against malicious accusations.

Today’s era is of defensive medicine, the sole purpose being to protect oneself from litigation. If we observe the effect of defensive medicine on the patient who is at the receiving end of it, we can put immense economic burden.

A registered medical practitioner wants to be shielded against such fake accusations for smoother practice. The Consumer Protection Act which was passed in 1986, did not include medical services in it, but in the year 1995 the Act was amended to include medical services as well by Supreme Court judgment.

The recently passed CPA 2019 does not provide any relief to the doctors, rather it has enhanced the quantum of compensation. With rise in cases of violence against doctors at workplace as per IMA statistics, what are the options a medical practitioner is left with? The CPA is consuming both the patients and the doctors.