The Medical, Dental, Pharmacy and Nursing have their own councils and under that they have specific Acts which have to be followed for legal practice. A small part of medical malpractice accompanied by the unethical conduct is covered under the medical council acts while the rest falls under the tort law, criminal laws and the consumer protection act.
The paramedical workers have no such independent legal existence except being the employees of the state. Including Physiotherapy!!!
Physiotherapy practice in India is not covered by any omnibus legislation.
There is no single legislation covering all aspects of Physiotherapy practice.
The laws affecting physiotherapy practice cover a wide range of areas.
Some of these areas are:
(i)
Physiotherapy Education: This topic again encompasses a number of issues right from recognition of qualifications, recognition of educational institutions, the courses of study, right of admission and various other aspects concerning rights of physiotherapy students, etc.
(ii)
Entitlement to physiotherapy practice and the limitations of the same: What does a given
degree entitle you to practice?
(iii)
Control over Physiotherapy practice: Machinery which will ensure the enforcement of
the laws referred to above.
(iv)
Obligations of Physiotherapy and physiotherapy ethics: The obligations of Physiotherapists to other Physiotherapists, to patients and to the society ain't coded in the code of Physiotherapy ethics in India.
(v)
Physiotherapy malpractice laws: These deal with malpractice and negligence and the machinery to bring Physiotherapists to book such as Consumer Courts, etc.
Physiotherapy malpractice accompanied by the unethical conduct is covered under the tort law, criminal laws and the consumer protection act.
(vii) Control over hospitals and clinics
We have totally four state councils for Physiotherapy namely Delhi Physiotherapy Council, Maharashtra PT Council, Gujarat PT Council, Tamilnadu PT Council.
Albeit we have only Maharashtra OT PT Council which is working in the
right order and in the process to build up a hope for PT practitioner
registered under it.
Liability for professional negligence -
Tort, standard of care, problems of evidence, contractual liability, criminal liability, Liability of
doctors and hospitals under Consumer Protection Act.
The health sector flourished unquestionably, till the evolution
of Law of Torts in England, under Civil laws. The Law of Torts gave place for
consumer laws, which questioned the impeccable authority of the health sector.
The medical and para-medical professionals
hitherto are questionable under Law of Torts and under
Consumer Law too.
Law of Torts
A tort means ‘wrong’. It is a violation of the general duty which
every member of the society is obliged so as not to do any harm without lawful
justification or excuse. If by the act of an individual, an injury is caused
to a third person, the affected person is entitled to claim compensation from
the doer. Under the Torts, only the petitioner has to prove the case against
the respondent.
Consumer Act 1986
As
the Law of Torts comes under civil law, the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 becomes
applicable. The parliament enacted the Consumer Protection Act 1986, providing
three types of Tribunal (not courts) so that summary trials are possible and
the complainant need not pay any fees for suits. Three-tier system of disposing
the consumer disputes are provided from district level (District Consumer Disputes
Redressal Forum), state level, (State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission)
and nation level (National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission). After the
National Commission, the final appeal can be made with the SC. The pecuniary
jurisdiction is upto Rs 10 lakh for District Forum, from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1
crore for State commission and beyond Rs 1 crore for the National Commission.
The Provisions of the Act were not extended to the medical professionals when
it was enacted in 1986. But the provisions were enlarged due to the judgement
of the Supreme court in The MCI Vs VP Shantha case. Immediately, a flood of
cases were filed against the medial professionals, para-medical staff, diagnosis
centers and drug manufacturers.
While the state has not seriously suffered due the
consumer apathy and difficult access to legal recourse, it is an open
question as to the legality of work carried out by them without any
immediate supervision by the professional staff at the sub-centres. The
acute crisis in this field is faced by, NGOs who employ such staff and
do not have resources and partial immunity that such health workers
enjoy in the government sector.
In last one and half century, other health care workers such as nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists etc have emerged as the professionals in their own right. The historical emergence of nursing as an autonomous branch of healing profession (lyer, Jesani, 1996), the pharmacists emerged as a separate strata of professionals from the erstwhile apothecaries in England. It is interesting to note that these various branches historically represent a division of labour within the healing profession. The doctors originally combined works of nursing, pharmacist, physiotherapists etc. It is the increasing complexity of medicine, which has forced the medical profession to reluctantly give away a part of its original work to other health workers. These health workers have emerged as the professionals in their own right in their respective fields. However, in the process, the doctors have striven for its domination over the other professionals and got it. One area where this domination is seen clearly is in the councils of these health workers.
References:
Laws and Health Care Providers
To my knowledge all this is correct, if someone knows more details about it then kindly put it in comments. Thank you.
