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The
number of frivolous malpractice suits being initiated against doctors
is increasing with each passing year. Doctors are perceived as vulnerable
to frivolous lawsuits filed by unethical plaintiffs, attorneys and
expert witnesses. There is nothing more distressing to a doctor
than being sued, especially when the lawsuit has absolutely no merit.
The simple threat of a frivolous malpractice suit adversely affects
a doctor’s career and personal life. The current legal medical
malpractice infrastructure leaves physicians feeling abandoned and
without a true advocate. The situation is untenable and injurious
to both physicians and the public. MEDI-SHIELD has taken definitive
action by providing substantive help to physicians facing unjust
malpractice claims. We render following services in this area:
| a. |
Continuously assist the doctors by guiding them in preventing
any potential lawsuit. For this, the members can call our Medicolegal
consultants telephonically (any time) or personally (with prior
appointment of the Medicolegal consultants), as and when any
Medicolegal problem arises in your day-to-day medical practice.
This valuable professional guidance will be totally free of
charge for the members. Our representatives will visit your
health center* to assist in solving legalities of the concerned
matter.
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| b. |
Defending frivolous medical negligence lawsuit by effectively
drafting a detail medicolegal opinion supported by relevant
textbook and recent medical Indian and foreign journal references
for the insurance lawyer to plead.
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| c. |
Procuring affidavits necessary for strengthening the case*
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| d. |
Providing Medicolegal Update: A quarterly publication on recent
legal trends, landmark judgments, Do’s and Don’ts
for lawful running of your profession, providing an introduction
to the medical officers about the various acts, laws, Government
resolutions, circulars, court precedence etc. that are directly
or indirectly regulating their professional conduct and which
they are supposed to know, even before entering into medical
profession (because ignorance of law is no excuse), including,
the relevant sections of: The Bombay anatomy act, The Hospital
registration act, Nursing home registration act, The Drugs and
Cosmetic act, The IMC act, MMC act, The Mental health act, The
Maharashtra Medical practitioners act , The NDPS act, The Transplantation
of human organs act, The PNDT act, The MTP act, IPC, CrPC, IEA,
CPA, The Information Technology act, The Factory act, Industrial
Dispute act, The Law of contracts, Labor law, Legal and Ethical
Aspects of Practice of Medicine, State and Indian Medical Councils,
Consent, Professional secrecy, Professional Misconduct, Medical
Ethics and Etiquette, Rights and duties of Doctors and Nurses
vis a vis patients, Police and Court Procedures (Consumer and
Criminal), dying declaration, deposition etc.
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| e. |
Training sessions: For doctor’s groups, hospital staff
on the topics of ethical and legal aspects of medical practice,
medical auditing etc.
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| f. |
Medical Records Auditing, Providing formats of various forms,
documents and registers mandatory for effective documentation.
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| g. |
Providing Immunity: Not accepting cases of medical negligence
by our sister concerns,
against our registered MEDI-SHIELD members. MEDI-SHIELD is an
organization that is formed for protecting as well as nurturing
the medical profession. It also has its sister concerns working
for the protection of public at large who have suffered at the
hands of negligent doctors. As is true with all other professions,
medical profession is also encroached upon by many qualified
as well as unqualified quacks motivated by considerations of
monetary gains without any legal, social and ethical obligations.
Our sister concerns help the patients who have suffered at the
hands of such black sheep in the profession. Thus, our sister
concerns are principally helping the medical profession to regain
its lost dignity and faith.
However, once you are a member of MEDI-SHIELD, you get an additional
advantage of this immunity against these sister concerns, accepting
any case against any of the registered annual members of the
MEDI-SHIELD.
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| h. |
Guidance regarding Medicolegal issues like advising your nursing
staff about the legalities in preserving various samples while
managing the patient, requirements of Forensic Science Laboratory
e.g. in poisoning cases preserving gastric lavage etc.
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| i. |
Advising you or your RMOs & staff about the cases of Injuries
(Mechanical, Thermal, Electrical, Lightning, Radiation), Transportation
injuries, Regional Injuries, Medicolegal aspects of injuries,
Violent Asphyxial Deaths, Starvation, Crime and cruelty at home,
Hazards of Blood transfusion, Social, Medical, Legal and Ethical
Problems with AIDS
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| j. |
Cases of Psychiatry and Sexual Jurisprudence, Impotence and
Sterility, Virginity and Defloration, Pregnancy and Delivery,
Abortion, Infanticide, Sexual Offences and Sex Perversions e.g.
collection of evidentiary material (like for DNA analysis),
preserving, storage and submission to proper authorities along
with their formats and guidelines for documentation etc.
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| k. |
Cases of Forensic Toxicology, Drug Dependence and Abuse, Consumer
Protection Act and Doctors
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| l. |
Consultation to Doctors and Lawyers involved in medicolegal
work on the following issues: Duties of Physicians and Rights
of the patients, Medical Negligence and Professional Misconduct,
Relevant sections of IPC, CrPC, IEA, CPA as regards medical
profession, Defenses available to doctors, nurses in cases of
alleged medical negligence
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| m. |
Medical/Medico legal documentation, Injury report, Report
of Estimation of age of an individual, Report of examination
of an alcoholic, Report on examination of accused of sexual
offences, Report on examination of victim of sexual offences,
Report on Examination of a mentally ill person, Sickness certificate,
Physical fitness certificate.
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| n. |
Death certificate, Procedures to be followed in Pre/ post
operative deaths, Deaths in custody/ during “encounters’,
Medical certification of causes of death, Information to the
police, Police/ Magistrate’s Inquest, Interpretation of
reports of chemical analysis & accessory investigations,
Consultation in criminal matters involving body offences, Consultation
to lawyers for a strong examination in chief (by the prosecution)
or cross- examination (by the defense), to effectively put forth
the case before the court, Consultation to doctors, who have
been called as an ordinary or an expert witness to depose before
the court, to face cross- examination by the defense lawyer,
expert guidance and consultation in postmortems (e.g. guidance
in documenting, answering to the police queries, appearance
in courts, collecting evidentiary material etc.)
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| o. |
Consultation in cases of: Medical Negligence cases/ Professional
Indemnity Cases, Hospital clinical papers auditing/ scrutiny,
Criminal Matters, Consumer matters, Medical Documentation and
Auditing , Maintenance, preservation and destruction of medical
and medicolegal documents and X-rays, Medicolegal aspects of
casualty and emergency medical services, mishap management,
Some judgments by the consumer courts in favor of and against
the medical professionals and nurses, Guidelines for drafting
and pleading a case before the consumer courts.
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| p. |
Mediclaim and Health Plus Policies, Personal Accident Policies/
Workmen Compensation, Professional Indemnity Insurance Policy
matters.
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| q. |
Services for-Patients/ Relatives of the patients/Doctors/Paramedical
staff/Nursing Homes and Corporate Hospitals.
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| r. |
Medical Negligence cases
Our experience and special training in the subjects of medical
ethics and etiquettes, medical negligence and professional misconduct,
consumer protection act, hospital administration and medical
& Medicolegal documentation have made us the one stop center
for all the cases of medical negligence. Our expert team helps
the patients/ doctors/ lawyers/ private and corporate hospitals
in representing their case properly before the consumer courts/
any other forum; making a legal drafting for them, preparing
a strong defense in some frivolous and vexatious cases- all
these based on a vast amount of medical literature in support
of their say/ drafting and pleadings.
The panel doctors strive to get maximum medical literature from
various medical reference books, recent journals, case laws
etc. to strengthen their case. Their academically driven manner
of drafting the cases of medical negligence have given them
the cutting edge over their doctors /lawyers handling the cases
of medical negligence. Also, their explanatory and illustrative
method enables the insurance lawyers to present a complicated
medical matter through figures, diagrams, photographs and sketches/
models/ mannequins facilitating the complete understanding on
part of the sitting members of any judicial forums, thereby
equipping them for proper disbursement of justice.
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| s. |
Services for Lawyers and Police / Investigating Authorities
in Criminal Matters
In criminal courts, it is a common observation that many lawyers
handling the criminal cases need to submit some medical certificates
or Medicolegal documents before the Hon’ble courts as
evidence. This may be in the form of a postmortem report, certificate
of age verification, report on examination of an alcoholic,
mentally ill person, accused or victim of rape, injured, illness/fitness
certificates, reports on examination of clothes, articles found
at the scene of crime, weapon report, blood reports including
blood groups in disputed paternity cases, DNA reports, reports
from chemical analyzers about various biological materials send
by the autopsy surgeon etc. In all these matters, the lawyers
handling the case are not well versed with the medical aspects
of these documents. So, many times during examination in chief
(by the prosecution) or cross examination (by the defense),
the lawyers invariably miss (ignore) many important facts that
are mentioned in the report. In fact, the lawyers who are qualified
in law are not expected to know the details of medicine (which
the doctors have achieved in their long years of their rigorous
undergraduate and postgraduate courses and which is updated
by the continuous updating of recent knowledge).
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All the above services will be rendered free of
charge to all the annual members of
MEDI-SHIELD
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