Nurses should also be given same protection as doctors on complaint of medical negligence: High Court

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has said that no action including the arrest of nurses should be taken based on a complaint that there was medical negligence. Nurses should also be ensured the protection given to doctors in such complaints. Justice P P Kunhikrishnan directed the government to issue a circular in this regard within three months.

The order was issued quashing the case registered by the police for culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the woman who was working as a temporary nurse at Cherthala Taluk Hospital. The case was filed on the grounds that there was a lapse in providing treatment to a 10-year-old child. The court said the service of nurses working day and night for the care of patients needs to be recognised. "Nurses are the backbone of the healthcare sector. It is the nurses who spend more time with the patients than the doctor. Therefore, they should be protected and given moral support," the court said.

The court has suggested that the investigating officer should seek expert opinion before registering a case on complaints against nurses just as the Supreme Court has directed that expert opinion should be sought before registering a case against doctors on complaints of medical negligence. Unnecessary arrests should not happen. The government has been directed to issue a circular similar to the one issued in 2008 in the case of doctors.
Quashing the case against the petitioner, the court said that this order does not come in the way of taking action if the investigating officer finds medical negligence on the part of anyone in the incident that led to the death of the child.