Convenor and Managing Trustee, Medicos Legal Action Group Trust, Chandigarh, India.
Department of Ophthalmology, Government Medical College, Chandigarh, India.
Indian J Ophthalmol. 2019 Oct;67(10):1520-1523. doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_315_19.
The cost of technology is high in ophthalmology but given the increasingly competitive environment and the social demand, there is a pressure to progressively lower the costs to the consumer. To keep costs down there is a tendency to do as many surgeries as possible in an assembly line fashion both in hospitals as well as in the charitable camps. This article provides ophthalmologists an insight into the legal pitfalls in practice of ophthalmology in India and the dangers of the constant lowering of costs of surgery as well as of free service. This lowering of costs would have been ideal in a Utopian world, but times have now changed and there is cost to be paid even for providing free service. In India the prevalent tradition of providing free service, has also resulted in a lowering of guard by the eye surgeons. These mass eye surgery assembly popularly called "free eye camps" has seen millions of people benefited. But recently there is an increase in number of cases where exorbitant penalty has been imposed by the courts, on these philanthropic surgeons for any deficiency in service, and this has destroyed the careers of many ophthalmologists. Time has now come to introspect and to factor the cost of litigation and compensations into the cost of surgeries so that we not only benefit the patients but also safeguard the ophthalmologists and help them fulfill their responsibilities towards their own dependents.
眼科的技术成本很高，但考虑到竞争日益激烈的环境和社会需求，有降低消费者成本的压力。为了降低成本，无论是在医院还是慈善营地，都有一种倾向，即以流水线的方式尽可能多地进行手术。本文为眼科医生提供了一个洞察印度眼科实践中的法律陷阱以及不断降低手术成本和免费服务的危险。在乌托邦式的世界中，降低成本本来是理想的，但现在情况已经发生了变化，即使提供免费服务也需要付出代价。在印度，提供免费服务的普遍传统也导致眼科医生降低了警惕。这些大规模的眼外科手术，俗称“免费眼营”，已经使数百万人受益。但最近，法院对这些慈善外科医生的服务缺陷处以过高罚款的案件数量有所增加，这破坏了许多眼科医生的职业生涯。现在是时候进行反思了，并将诉讼和赔偿成本纳入手术成本，这样我们不仅可以使患者受益，还可以保护眼科医生，并帮助他们履行对自己家属的责任。
