Jun 14
Today’s world is a world of speed. If you remember previous times, in case of a medical problem, you would go to a hospital and give your samples over there for check-up; and you would get your results later (maybe the next day, but mostly after a few days). However, as medical science improved, the area of providing quality medical diagnosis based on samples (blood, fluids, stool, etc) improved, with results coming in much faster than previously. In addition, modern collection companies such as Dr. Lal Pathlabs, and the Ranbaxy SRL Labs are now spread all over major cities, decentralizing the collection facilities by spreading them ever few kilometers, with the quality of results of these tests also being of good quality. However, as the incidence of testing by specialist sample testing companies grows, our dependence on them also grows, and they increasing start entering the realm of consumer complaints and dissatisfaction:
NEW DELHI: The state consumer commission has pulled up a speciality laboratory for inordinate delay in sending a patient’s report to a hospital, as a result of which he died. The lab report for a CMV test — carried out for viral detection — was crucial for the treatment of a 56-year-old patient, who was awaiting a renal transplantation. It took the laboratory 25 days to send the report, by which time the patient died. Now, the commission has asked the lab, Speciality Ranbaxy Limited, to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation to the victim’s family.
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May 23
In India, low cost airlines came up with a way to make more money. If a passenger booked a ticket and proceeded to travel on the airline, then well and good. However, if the consumer decided to cancel the ticket, then this would be a good way to make some more money. So do 2 things, either make the proceed of money refund so difficult that in some cases the passenger would give up and not claim the money back, or claim that the passenger cannot get a refund and the only way is to get a coupon that would entitle you to travel again on the airline. This can be a problem when you really don’t have plans of using the coupon, since they would expire in some time and that money is gone. I have faced both those issues when I booked travel via SpiceJet and Go. The trip got canceled, and it took around 4 months to get my money back from SpiceJet after some calls including some frustrating conversations where they asked for all sorts of information and twice claimed that their systems were down. With regard to Go, they gave me some coupon redeemable on another flight, and I could not use those (and I regret not forcing the issue by going to a consumer forum for help).
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Mar 02
Motherhood is a very important stage in the life of a lady, and anything that could harm the prospect of motherhood needs to be considered very carefully. Additionally, in a sign that the Supreme Court was aware of the prospect of private hospitals and nursing homes trying to earn more money by conducting additional medical operations on patients (while the patient was on the operation theatre and only relatives had given permission), the Court had asked the medical institutions to take consent from the patient before conducting additional medical procedures (except in cases of urgency or life/death situations). Tying these 2 together, a patient whose ovaries were removed during a medical procedure by a doctor at a private hospital based on consent by relatives, has sought enhanced damages (she was awarded Rs. 25,000 earlier - clearly seems to be inadequate compensation):
In the landmark verdict on January 16, the SC had chastised private hospitals and nursing homes for inflating bills by conducting additional procedures on patients by taking consent from the relatives while he was on the operation table.
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Feb 01
In an important judgment, the Supreme Court of India has ratified the order of the National Consumer Commission that had awarded an overall sum of Rs. 38.04 lakhs (including interest) compensation against the Airports Authority of India for dereliction leading to the death of a child. In a horrific incident on December 13, 1999, a family arriving at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport saw their 7 year old daughter getting sucked into the gap at the end of the escalator and getting crushed to death. It was an incident that sparked a lot of outrage, more so, because this was an incident that could have been avoided.
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an order of the national consumer commission awarding Rs 38.04 lakh compensation to the mother of a seven-year-old girl who died after she was sucked into an escalator at Delhi’s international airport in December 1999. The order marked a stinging rebuke to the Airports Authority of India which, despite strong evidence pointing to its callousness in not maintaining the escalator, had sought to dispute the compensation granted to Geeta Jethani.
While awarding the compensation, the commission had criticized the cussed attitude of AAI in questioning the compensation for a death which clearly resulted from its apathy, saying the case pointed to the extent “we have developed the tendency to deny the obvious, in litigation”. “Except admitting the trapping of a young child in the escalator, the AAI has tried to dispute its liability and deficiency in service. We do not know when we will change our jurisprudence which encourages such attitude of denials and protracts litigation and increases burden on adjudicating forums/courts,” Justice M B Shah, chairman of the commission, had said in his verdict.
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