A Consumer Protection Court has ordered a leading private hospital in Karachi to pay Rs500,000 in compensation to a woman patient over deficient services and medical negligence, while also relieving her of a disputed additional bill of nearly Rs1.8 million.
The Consumer Protection Court (East) also directed the hospital to pay Rs200,000 in litigation costs to the complainant.
The court rejected the hospital’s objection that the complaint had been filed after the prescribed legal period under the Sindh Consumer Protection Act.
However, the court dismissed the patient’s claim seeking a refund of Rs2.2 million paid for hip replacement surgery, as well as a separate claim for Rs4.516 million in damages for nursing care, physiotherapy and medicines.
The court observed that even the hospital’s own doctor could not explain how a catheter that was correctly positioned initially ended up inside an artery.
