Doctors cannot be pressurised by a legal opinion or by a court order to furnish details of their contact numbers as landline or mobile,email address to a patient.If Doctor himself or herself provide s it then it is upto them.Kerala High court passed this order reverting order of kerala state consumer redressal commission which compelled Doctors by an order to furnish details of Doctor to a patient by a hospital where Doctor has treated that patient so that in emergency patient can contact the doctor or in medical negligence case court can approach the doctor as many medical negligency cases are pending in court as once Doctors left Hospital then Hospital usually donot provide their latest contact detail as they are not working now as many court cases are come for hearing after many years of incidence.
The commission ordered that every hospital has to keep details of contact number and email address of all Doctors providing service in its registry and should give it to patient if asked for IMA apposed it as it will put doctors under heavy pressure of work even during their rest as Doctors already work for 10-12 hrs in hospital and even after leaving hospital ,they are again disturbed then it will lead to heavy burden of work on their schedule and Doctors will not be able to work smoothly in such busy schedule of working round the clock.
Kerala High court accepted such reasoning of Doctors and ordered that hospital has to keep contact details of every doctor working only.The Court ordered that this contact details should not be given to patient so that they can contact them in emergency but for emergency, hospital number should be given to patient.So in case of any emergency after starting treatment than patient relative can be answered by another doctor working in emergency as most hospital keep 24x7 doctors in their emergency so that disturbance to treating doctor is less in resting hours.
Such order definitely relieves doctors from their round the clock working situation as most patient want that after a consultation, doctor is bound to answer them at any odd hours forgetting their relaxation or other family or social engagements and duty as if they are superhuman or Second God born to treat and relieve patient every time as a moral duty as thought by Consumer redressal commission of Kerala.
What as a Doctor you think regarding such order?Will as a Doctor or our organisation in every town,city or state come forward as Kerala IMA if such unhuman ,unjustified orders or notifications are thrown over Doctor community as most of the time Doctors or their organisation donot react ?