An important judgment passed by the Bombay High Court, would ensure that patients or their relatives would be provided with a copy of their medical case papers, on demand. Until now, patients and family members have been facing lot of trouble, in retrieving their case papers from the doctor or hospital as they tend to treat it as confidential documents. In fact, in some cases, doctors feel that it is their property and therefore refuse to give the much-sought medical documents to patients.
Angered by the above situation, Ragunath G Raheja filed a writ petition against some doctors and the Maharashtra Medical Council. This new judgment that has re-established the patient’s right to have access to medical case papers has for sure has brought in a ray of hope and relief to the embarrassed patients and their relatives.Furthermore, it has been clearly stated that neither the doctor nor the hospital can claim any confidentiality in the matter of case papers. Additionally, the Medical Council has been instructed to issue clear orders regarding the above issue to all doctors and hospitals in the state and to issue a press note, ensuring that the ruling is publicized in all forms of media.
