Knowledge and awareness among general population towards medical negligence

Background: Negligence is defined as doing something which reasonably competent people not suppose to do or not doing something which reasonably competent persons suppose to do. Materials and methods: Present study was undertaken with aim to assess knowledge and awareness of general population towards medical negligence at Valsad. Total 100 people from general population were subjected to pre-tested and pre-validated questionnaire related to medical negligence after obtaining their informed written consent. Questionnaire contain 10 questions related to medical negligence with responses based on Likert’s scale varied from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Responses obtained were tabulated in MS Excel sheet and analyzed via SPSS software. Results: Out of 100 participants, 37% were between 31-40 years age group, 65% were male and 73% were married. Total 55% were agreed upon that failure to maintain a medical record by hospital is negligence. 33% were not sure about that doctor, nurse and management staff of hospital ? anyone can be liable for negligence. 71% were agreed upon that performing operation without informed written consent is negligence. 31% were agreed upon that treating a patient without his consent is negligence. 48% were strongly agreed upon that carelessly leaving an instrument in patient’s body after operation is negligence. 31% were disagreed upon that refusing to attend patient in emergency is negligence. 36% were agreed about that performing or helping for euthanasia is negligence. 72% were agreed upon that death due to negligence is punishable by court. 44% were agreed upon that compensation for negligence can be claimed in consumer court. 55% were agreed about that wrong diagnosis followed by wrong treatment is considered as negligence Conclusion: Present study reflected that general population has quite a good knowledge regarding medical negligence which may increase gradually over a period of time due to news papers, internet and other resources. Training programs should be conducted for them to bring true knowledge and awareness regarding medical negligence which indeed helps to them as well as practitioners.