Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Seeking Directions to Medical Professionals to Disclose Risks and Adverse Effects of Prescribed Medicines

Today (November 14, 2024, Thursday), the Supreme Court (SC) of India dismissed a plea seeking directions to all medical professionals to mandatorily disclose risks and adverse effects associated with medicines prescribed for their patients. The two-judge bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice KV Viswanathan heard the matter. During the proceedings, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for the petitioner, suggested, “It is easy for the doctor to have a printed proforma about effects.” Justice Gavai replied, “For every patient it is a different medicines.” Advocate Bhushan added, “WHO (World Health Organisation) says that the large part of harm to patients is because of the adverse effects of medicines.” However, the top Court bench declined to entertain the matter and dismissed the plea. Justice Viswanathan said, “The only thing that can be done is a local language indicator in pharmacies that read medicine covers properly.” While hearing the matter, Justice Viswanathan said that pharmacies are all crowded, therefore, the prayers sought are difficult to implement. Adding to this, Justice Gavai said, “A general practitioner cannot attend more than 10-15 patients if this followed and then (there is the issue of) consumer protection cases...This is not practical at all. As it is, doctors are unhappy (about) bringing them under the ambit of the Consumer Protection Act.”