Worries of a nervous medical practitioner

The dilemma for doctors would be to resuscitate or not to resuscitate a patient who has gone into a cardiac arrest

- Dr Neeraj Nagpal

Recently, when Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) introduced, Amit Shah the mover of the bill and the honourable home minister had clearly stated that doctors will not be covered within its purview for alleged professional medical negligence. Despite the widely publicised legislative intent when the Act was notified, we found that provisions were, if anything, more stringent for doctors than in the previously existing Indian Penal Code (IPC).

No doctor has a desire to harm his patient. Even BNS, under various sections, gives protection to those who had done an act in good faith and for benefit of person but instead it caused harm.

Now that the term "medical negligence" has for the first time been included in criminal law. Doctors are apprehensive that like multiple incidents in the past where doctors were prosecuted under IPC Section 304 (II) instead of Section 304 A, similar misuse of Sections 105, 117 and 124 of the BNS will occur due to ambiguous language used. An act causing permanent damage or deformity or vegetative state (PVS) has punishments ranging from rigorous imprisonment of 10 years to life. PVS occurs when the brain suffers hypoxic damage.