Medico-Legal Aspects

Medico-Legal Aspects of Patient Care is written with the aim of educating medical practitioners and paramedical staff about the patient's rights, current laws relating to medical practice and how to face menace of malpractice suits. The book has several chapters relating to doctor and patient relationship, consent, medical ethics, role of medical council, medical records, and most importantly, medical negligence. The emphasis has been laid on defining medico-legal aspects of injury in general, head injury and regional injuries in particular. The common medico-legal problems/mishaps that occur in major medical practices like anesthesia, gynecology and obstetric practice, surgical practice and practice by physicians have also been dealt with. A chapter on professional indemnity policies offered by the insurance companies is also included. A major emphasis of this book is on how to face common medico-legal problems like refusal of treatment, arrival of dead body and non-payment of fee etc. Guidelines on how to avoid medical malpractice suit/medical negligence are prescribed. The new guidelines prescribed by Medical Council of India and ICMR ethical guidelines have been added. It is hoped that this book will help the persons working in medical field to discharge safe medical practice. RK Sharma is teaching since last 23 years at All India Institute of Medical Sciences and is presently working as Additional Professor of Forensic Medicine. He completed his MBBS and M.D. degrees from AIIMS and then joined as Faculty member. He has published a large number of scientific papers in various national and international journals. He has supervised many research projects of national importance. He has extensively travelled to USA, Australia, Singapore, SAARC countries to gain vast medico-legal experience. He is a regular examiner at various universities in India. He is office-bearer of many national and international organizations. His main zeal is to educate medical practitioners about legal aspects of patient care so that they can discharge safe medical practice. He is a strong advocate of patient's rights and seeks improvement in patient care in India. He regularly delivers talk about legal aspects of patient care at meetings of Indian Medical Association, Punjab Health System Corporation, Central Health Scheme and various hospitals and nursing homes. He is publisher of international journal "Medico-Legal Update".