Pune: The Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has held that a mere allegation, unsupported by evidence to rebut the opinion of an independent committee of medical experts, is insufficient to hold a hospital liable for medical negligence.A bench comprising state panel president Justice S P Tavade and member Vijay C Premchandani on June 15 upheld the Pune District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission’s April 26, 2022, order dismissing a Hadapsar resident’s complaint seeking Rs 90 lakh in compensation from a Wanowrie hospital.The complainant’s wife died on May 26, 2020, due to kidney and lung damage caused by low blood pressure following a heart attack after undergoing a dilatation and curettage (D&C) procedure following a medical termination of pregnancy.“The state commission held that the district panel was right in relying on the opinion of an expert committee from Sassoon General Hospital, which held that there was no negligence on the part of the anaesthetist in administering anaesthesia and no negligence on the part of the hospital in referring the patient to a higher centre after she suffered a heart attack,” advocate Rohit Erande, who represented the hospital, told TOI.The bench also relied on two rulings of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. In a Dec 2019 judgment, the commission held that “referral to a higher centre is not negligence”. In a Nov 2021 ruling, it observed that “every death of a patient cannot, on the face of it, be considered medical negligence. Despite the treatment, if the patient had not survived, the doctors cannot be blamed, as even doctors with the best of their abilities cannot prevent the inevitable”.The complainant alleged that his wife’s death resulted from the hospital’s negligence, claiming that an overdose of anaesthesia administered before the procedure caused accumulation of water in the chest as well as acid in the blood.The district commission, while dismissing the complaint, relied on the report of a three-member expert committee from Sassoon General Hospital, comprising the heads of the gynaecology and anaesthesia departments. The panel concluded that the anaesthetist had administered the anaesthesia appropriately and that there was no negligence on her part. It further found that the patient’s kidney and lung damage resulted from low blood pressure and the subsequent heart attack.In the appeal proceeding, the state commission held that there was no effective counter to the expert panel’s opinion, and hence, the hospital cannot be held liable for medical negligence.