Monday 1 April 2013

Emedinews:Insights on Medicolegal Issues:What is a medicolegal case?



A medicolegal case is a case of injury, ailment, hurt or illness or death due to evident criminal cause or where the attending doctor, on examining the patient, concludes that criminal force/weapon has been used against human body and an inquiry/investigation by law agencies is required in accordance with the prevailing law of the land. It is a legal duty of the treating doctor to inform a medicolegal case to the nearest police station immediately after completing primary lifesaving medical care. In accordance with Section 39 of Criminal Procedure Code of India, the treating doctor is duty bound to inform the nearest police station as soon as he/she completes his primary medical care. Phones/mobile phones can be used for informing the police in this era of modern advancement in telecommunication. An acknowledgement of receipt of such a message should be taken for future reference. If the intimation is given orally or on phone, the diary number (DD or the Daily Docket number/name and designation of police officer) should be taken down as proof of intimation and should be properly documented in the patient’s records. The idea is to initiate legal proceeding at the earliest so that the maximum evidence can be collected by the police officer with minimum destruction of evidences, site of occurrence, knowingly or unknowingly by any party. There is a quote in Bernard Knight Text Book of Forensic Medicine, which says that ‘the doctor dealing with medico–legal cases should not act /behave like a detective; equally the doctor should never act like curtain between police and patient involved in crime.'

No comments:

Post a Comment