Medical Superintendent, St.

Gregorious Mission Hospital

Jessy & Another [III (2009) CPJ 61 (NC)]

FACTS

Facts leading to this Appeal are:-

the wife and daughter of the deceased since the opposite party hospital had been negligent in
not providing due care on account whereof the deceased who was undergoing alcoholic
psychosis treatment for de-addiction of drugs, had committed suicide by hanging in the
hospital.

In its revision petition, the hospital contended that it was impossible to provide 24-hour
service to look after the affairs and needs of each patient. The National Commission held that
the patient was allowed to move away on his own from his ward into an empty ward without
being noticed by the nurses and ward boys. The patient hung himself with lungi which was
not noticed by the staff but the copatients.

Relying upon cross-examination of the Medical Superintendent, the Commission held that
the complainant wife was not instructed to be continuously with her husband as alleged and
that the instruction in the Nurses Daily Record, being in a different ink, was a manipulation

ISSUES RAISED

The issues that have been raised are as follows:-

Is hospital liable to pay the amount for negligence?

ORDER

As per the hospital's own evaluation, the hospital staff should have taken extra care to deal
with such a patient but the required degree of care was not exhibited