Medical malpractice lawsuits can negatively affect the doctors care
Doctors and patients generally stick to the belief of truth in the medical profession for cure of disease. However, the diagnosis and treatment of a patient is a delicate relation between doctor and patient, full with of possibilities for mistakes. A faltering observation of symptoms from a docile patient can cause a doctor to overlook the seriousness of the symptoms. The medical profession has come a long way but there are still many uncertainties inbuilt in the medical profession, and these uncertain conditions may lead to medical malpractice lawsuits. The availability of proper medical attention was very low till the middle of the twentieth century and the quality of the treatment available was inferior as compared to the present day’s level of medical care.
At that period of time patients were more grateful for any medical care the doctor could provide to them. With the passage of time patients’ expectations have touched a new high with the advent of new technology and at present many people argue that health care is a right, not a luxury. Flawlessness in the cure and remedy isn’t always possible, no matter how closely doctors follow patients, there is always a scope of negligence and carelessness remains.
Recently patients lament about the decline in the quality of the doctor-patient relationship, doctors generally observe this decline with a different angle. The Mutual trust between the doctor and the patient is going to touch the new low. Doctors in obstetrics practice under the constant threat of being second-guessed they have almost lost the trust of the patients and when they experience a perky medical malpractice lawsuit, they feel strongly that they can no longer fully trust their patients. This fact is the root cause of the doctors to treat patients with less confidence, or sometime this even leads to defensive medicine, where doctors perform tests or offer drugs that aren’t medically necessary to ward off potential litigation.
This situation is turning towards wrong direction due to the increased number of law suites from the patients resulting the doctors prone to more lethargic attitude towards them as they are already much stressed and overworked. The increase in the number of the medical malpractice suites in the one hand increasing the mistrust of the doctors towards their patients and in the other hand inactivity and lack of proper remedial measures of the federal agencies are harming the trust of the patients.
A potentially patient and doctor friendly solution in the society is tort reform. Some of the lawyers take advantage of the situation where federal agencies are incapable of enacting in a meaningful way to protect the consumer rights of the patients. Tort reform may reduce the large quantity of lawsuits and very high settlements.