Mumbai:

“This is like a khap panch-ayat,” said Dr Arun Bal, who founded the Association for Consumers Action on Safety and Health. Individual docto-rs had been sent summons to appear before the NHRC with the case papers, he said, adding, “How can people, whose cases are in various stages of hearing across various fora, highlight their case at a public hearing? Wouldn’t it amount to influencing the courts?”

The NHRC hearings—six planned around the country over the next six months —will start on Wednesday, with 115 patients and their relatives from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan presenting their grievances against private and public hospitals and doctors. The hearing is being held at Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Deonar.

The

(AMC) said it was “wary” of these public hearings. “Patients with individual complaints against a doctor or hospital already have multiple fora to take up their grievances, namely the consumer forum, medical councils and criminal courts (in case of gross criminal negligence),” said AMC president Dr Sudhir Naik. He said the Supreme Court, in its 1991 judgment upholding the application of the

against doctors, had explicitly said the consumer fora will provide justice to patients. “It is beyond the purview of the NHRC to look into individual cases of medical negligence and any such intervention would be legally untenable.”

But Dr Anant Phadke of the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, which has coordinated with the NHRC to organize the hearings, said, “The NHRC, which is the national authority on human rights, has decided to hear cases of medical negligence, whereas Dr Bal, who is no authority on human rights, calls this public hearing a khap panchayat. This opposition is based on a profound (mis)understanding that denial of health care is a human rights issue, but sub-standard care as a result of medical negligence is not.”

He said medical teams had scrutinized and selected the cases. Stating that the hearing will also focus on systemic iss-ues and structural reforms in health care, its members said, “The

has hundreds of pending complaints. Moreover, the MMC patient grievance redressal mechanism is composed entirely of doctors, without involving a retired judge, consumer rights activist or patients’ representative.”

The idea of the National Human Rights Commission holding a two-day public hearing of patients’ grievances has not gone down too well with city doctors