The die, whether services rendered by the medical profession to a patient would be within the ambit of definition of Section 2 (1) (o) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, was cast in the case of Cosmopolitan Hospital versus Vasantha Nair [1992 CPJ 302 (NC)] wherein Justice Eradi, in a far reaching judgment, dated April 21, 1992 found for the patient and ordered the hospital to pay compensation to the wife of the deceased. As a result of that judgment and some others subsequent, the medical fraternity went into a spin (which has not since stopped !) with few doctors for and most against the implementation of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 as far as it applied to the medical profession.

There followed a spate of Writ Petitions in High Courts all over the country, some even challenging the constitutional validity of the Act. Some respite was obtained when the Madras High Court ruled in favor of the medical profession in Dr. C.S. Subramanian versus Kumarasamy & Another in 1994. Now that the curtain has finally come down, by the recent Supreme Court decision in Indian Medical Association versus V.P. Shantha & Others in its judgment dated November 13, 1995, the three judge bench consisting of Justice Kuldip Singh, S.C. Agrawal and B.L. Hansaria have ruled that services rendered by the medical profession will come within the ambit of the definition of "service" as defined in the Consumer Protection Act 1986, it is time that doctors learnt more about the Act and took to educate themselves instead of wringing their hands in despair.

A concise text to take appropriate steps before and after a complaint therefore serves to fill a void, which at present, is wide in the medical profession. The importance of better inter-personal relationship between doctor and patient, the need to look at our patients with a more caring attitude and not as "poor beggars" especially in a hospital setting, but to see them as suffering fellow humans, needs to be stressed but is beyond the scope of this work. It is with the practical approach to the problem of a medical practitioner/hospital/nursing home that the author has undertaken to write this book.

The book is divided into five parts. The first part consists of the complete text of the Supreme Court judgment in Indian Medical Association versus V.P. Shantha and Others. Every physician needs to study the judgment, if only to know the reasoning of the judges to include the medical profession under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The second part of the book deals with specific aspects of the substantive law as it relates to medical practice. The third part covers the procedural law in consumers forums and takes the reader step-wise on how to deal with a complaint. The fourth, relates to defenses available to the medical practitioner/hospital/nursing home when a complaint has been filed. The Consumer Protection Act, 1986 with amendments to date, The Consumer Protection Rules, 1987 and the Maharashtra Consumer Protection Rules, 1987 completes the task.

Mumbai 1996
Dr. H.L. Chulani.