Calcutta, Nov. 5: Bijoy Sinha Roy lost his wife, Kashinath Roy’s four-year-old son Deep lost his right arm, Sandhya Majumdar lost her eye and Kaberi Ghosh lost her hair. All of them alleged medical negligence, but none went to the West Bengal Medical Council or the Indian Medical Association (IMA) for justice. Instead, they chose to move the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum.

With the state medical council and the IMA dragging their feet on complaints of negligence by doctors, more and more people are queuing up at the consumer forum.

Doctors had implanted an intra-ocular lens in the anterior chamber of Sandhya Majumdar’s eye instead of the posterior chamber. “First I experienced a lot of pain and within weeks I lost vision completely,” she said.

Majumdar, a resident of Picnic Garden, said she knocked on the door of every medical body she could think of, but no one came to her help. She then decided to approach the consumer forum.

According to the state health department, a staggering 60-65 per cent of Calcuttans ? up by 30 per cent since three years ago ? are opting for the consumer forum rather than spending months, and sometimes years, in wait for redress.

In a little more than a year, the state consumer forum has registered 150 cases of medical negligence, while in two years, the state medical council has received 90. Of the 604 cases lodged at the forum, between 1997 and September 2005, 440 have been disposed of, with 165 cases in favour of the petitioner.

So why are people losing faith in a traditional forum for justice like the IMA, the largest representative body of doctors which also has a fairly strong cell to look into medical negligence?

Experts believe consumer forums have gained popularity because they ensure fast delivery of judgment. “Instead of four to five years of endless arguments and hearings, cases at consumer forums are disposed of in 90-150 days,” said Prabir Basu, an advocate and a member of the State Consumer Protection Council.

Sinha Roy, a retired teacher, said his wife Bani died “due to medical negligence” in January 1994. “I have lost count of the number of times I got in touch with the medical council and the IMA. The latter did not even bother to reply.”

What angered Sinha Roy more was the state medical council’s letter to him six months after he had filed the complaint, asking him to submit all papers again for re-examination. “I was shocked to learn that they took six months to tell me that,” Sinha Roy, who represented India at the bicentennial celebration of America’s constitution in 1987, said.

Nine years later ? on September 19 ? Sinha Roy got Rs 5 lakh as compensation, courtesy the consumer forum.

B.K. Ghosh did not waste time and headed for the forum straightaway after his wife Kaberi lost her hair a few months ago after an alleged wrong dosage of injection to treat arthritis. “Not just her hair, she also sustained bone marrow damage. I wanted quick justice and just a few days back, the consumer forum awarded me suitable compensation,” Ghosh said, adding that Kaberi was also suffering from acute trauma.

The IMA admitted that the number of complaints have dwindled. “We don’t get medical negligence cases these days as we used to before. In fact, in the last year we have received just one complaint,” said Iskindar Hussain, the joint secretary of the IMA’s Bengal branch and its medical cell convener.

Medical council officials said disposal of cases depends on several issues ? a series of hearings and cross-examinations and an independent investigation make it a long-drawn process. The IMA, on the other hand, prefers out-of-court settlements.

“Most cases seem to be a result of misunderstanding between the patient and the doctor and we try to solve them amicably. Nonetheless, in only 2-3 per cent of cases do we get some evidence of medical negligence. The rest do not seem to have any merit,” said R.D. Dubey, the editor of Journal for Indian Medical Association who was also joint secretary (headquarters) of the IMA.

The consumer court has recently added another bench to ensure that cases are heard quicker then before. “The results have been very good so far,” said Basu.

Lauding the recent trend of more people choosing the consumer forum, members A.K. Roy and S.N. Basu said the forum does not believe in endless hearings and questioning. “We are here to guide people and deliver justice quickly in cases of genuine grievances,” said Roy.