Patients and their relatives are now less tolerant of treatment that did not cure. Expectations from medical science, doctors and hospitals are high, sometimes unrealistically so. Any adverse or suboptimal outcome of treatment has now the potential for being construed as ‘negligence’ or the more business-like term ‘deficiency in service’. Consequently, there is an exponential rise in medical litigation.
Before I proceed to the captioned theme, I will list a small glossary of terms which may be known to most of you, but not to many. When a patient files a case against a doctor the following terms are applicable: Plaintiff — refers to the complainant (patient) Defendant – one who has been accused of an offence (the doctor) Respondent – one who responds to the accusations. When a defendant responds to the allegations, he is referred to a respondent. Opposite Party (OP) – synonymous with…
