define the cases covered by medico-legal and determine the procedure to be followed to respond and report when a medico-legal case requests treatment yes, if a doctor does not intentionally report a medico-legal case to the police, he will be punished with either a prison sentence of 6 months or a fine or both, in accordance with Section 202 of the Indian Penal Code. In summary, physicians should be aware of the medico-legal guidelines recommended by their respective hospitals. Attending physicians must remain diligent and attentive in the examination and treatment of the patient. You should also exercise caution when filling out medical records. You must ensure that the body undergoes an autopsy to death in suspicious circumstances and that the police must be informed before the body is handed over to relatives. All hospitals must ensure that their physicians receive adequate training to handle medico-legal cases. A medico-legal case is essentially a medical case with legal implications. A medical case becomes a medico-legal case when the attending physician clinically examines the patient and his or her history and the opinion is formed that an investigation by law enforcement authorities is necessary. A medical examination of patients by the police or the court also falls into this category.
Examples of cases that fall into the category of medico-legal cases include: fights or physical assaults and assaults made up the largest proportion of MLCs. Several errors were found in the MLRs provided by the doctors. Mlr writing should follow standardized guidelines as this affects legal proceedings and patients` rights. We recommend training physicians in the drafting of RMLs in the interest of the proper administration of justice. Section 177 of the Indian Criminal Code states that any person who is required by law to disclose to an officer information about the commission of a crime and to provide false information shall be punished by imprisonment for 2 years or a fine, or both. Therefore, a doctor who participates in a medico-legal case may be punished for providing false information. Here are some of the legal terms of the Indian Penal Code that every doctor should be aware of when dealing with a medico-legal case: This article was written by Adhila Muhammed Arif, a student at The Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram. This article attempts to explain what a medico-legal case is, some important laws related to it, and what physicians should consider when dealing with a medico-legal case. It should be noted that the above list is not exhaustive. Any case that does not fall into any category of the list and yet has legal implications is a medico-legal case. The physician must use professional judgment to determine whether or not a case has legal implications. The legal system of the modern world is undoubtedly closely linked to each sector or industry of society, and the health sector is no different.
As a result of such integration, physicians often deal with medical cases that have serious legal implications. These cases are called medico-legal cases (MLC). Every doctor encounters a medico-legal case at some point in their life. Most of them are afraid of having to deal with medico-legal cases, because they imagine that they would be summoned by the courts and the police. The fear of being involved in legal proceedings leads them to avoid medico-legal cases or to mislabel them. This article attempts to eliminate some misunderstandings about medico-legal cases and educate physicians to treat them. A total of 418 MLRs were included in this study. Fights or physical attacks and batteries made up the largest proportion of MLCs with 83% of MLCs.
Blunt injuries were in most cases the dominant type of injury (81.8%). With respect to errors in MLRs, no MLR was error-free in this study. A doctor may encounter several cases that could indicate the commission of a particular crime. The attending physician must mark such a case as a medico-legal case and inform the authorities. In some scenarios, such cases are sent to doctors by the court or by the police themselves. The doctor must ensure that the medical examination is carried out correctly and that all the forensic evidence obtained is properly stored. Most importantly, if the patient needs urgent treatment, the doctor must first perform the pre-treatment before completing the formalities of a medico-legal case. Fortunately, doctors don`t have to worry, as most hospitals now have a forensic manual that gives doctors detailed instructions on how to handle medico-legal cases. No, a doctor cannot refuse to treat a patient simply because it is a medico-legal matter.
This is a violation of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution as well as a breach of their contractual obligations. Save my name, email address, and website in this browser to comment next time. “Every doctor is obliged to provide medical assistance to the victims, regardless of the cause of the injury; He cannot find an excuse for the law to take its course. » Source of support: None, Conflict of interest: None. Correspondence address:Thounaojam MeeraDepartment of Forensic Medicine, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, Manipur IndiaSupport Resources: None, Conflict of Interest: NoneCheckDOI: 10.4103/0972-4958.191174 Your email address will not be published. Mandatory fields are marked * In the judgment in the Case of Parmananda Katara v Union of India, the Supreme Court said: The new PMC design has arrived! Learn more about navigating our updated article layout. The legacy view of pmc will also be available for a limited time. 1College of Medicine, King Fahad Hospital of the University, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia This retrospective and descriptive study was conducted at a teaching hospital in saudi Arabia`s Eastern Province. A total of 418 MLRs were submitted over a 6-month period and verified for MLC characteristics and defect identification.
