Order No.  3  dt.  13/06/2018

            The complainant has filed this case against the o.p. with the allegation that the wife of the complainant aged about 75 years having respiratory distress from the night of 2.1.17 and e\she was taken to B.R. Singh Hospital, Eastern Railway, Sealdah at about 9.30 a.m. on 3.1.7. The patient was taken the emergency department and she was not properly treated at the emergency department and subsequently other attending doctors and nurses of the said hospital did not pay any heed and she was not sent to critical care unit for which the patient died. In the death certificate it was stated that cause of death was for sepsis with multi organ failure in a case of diabetes mellitus, hypertension and fracture of dorsal vertebra. Since proper treatment was not rendered to the wife of the complainant for which the complainant filed this case praying for compensation for medical negligence against the o.ps.

            On perusal of the record we find that the complainant could not file any document to show that the complainant for the purpose of getting medical treatment paid any amount to the said hospital and as per Sec 2(d) of the C.P. Act whereby the term ‘consumer’ has been defined and it has been stated that consumer means any person who (1) buys any goods for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid or partly promises ….. (2) hires or avails of any services for a consideration which has been paid or promised or partly paid or partly promised ……..  but does not include a person who avails of such services for any commercial purpose.

            Here in this case the complainant could not produce any single scrap of paper to show that the complainant paid any amount to the said hospital for having such treatment from the said hospital. Since there is no relationship between the complainant and the hospital and the wife of the complainant i.e. the patient was not a consumer as per the C.P. Act, therefore we hold that the case filed by the complainant before this Forum is not maintainable and accordingly, the same is to be dismissed.

            Hence, ordered,

            That the CC No.170/2018 is dismissed in limini.