Accident survivors at Rajiv Gandhi Govt General Hospital
Chennai: Y Nagoor Meeran, 35, lost his left leg in an accident on a govt bus in Feb 2019. Seven years later, the marketing executive of a private firm is waiting for a medical-board report that could decide his compensation.
“I am tired of these tests and the long wait,” says Meeran. “I cannot work as I used to. I am unable to provide adequately for my family. I have suffered physical, emotional and financial losses. My marriage is at stake. I hope the money I get as compensation will help me set up a small business.”
In April 2019, a chief civil surgeon at a govt peripheral hospital certified that Meeran, then a 28-year-old engineering graduate, had 80% permanent locomotor disability. On June 8, Kilpauk Medical College Hospital asked him to appear at its orthopaedics block. Advocate V S Suresh, who handles accident claims, said the demands of repeated visits fall hardest on people coping with disability and lost income.
“Some move to cheaper homes after an accident and miss notices sent to their old addresses,” he says. Such experiences force people to stay away,” says Suresh. “Hospitals must expand their capacities so accident survivors with disability don’t suffer,” says Suresh.
To get the medical board report, he had to visit several govt hospitals. He has appeared before that board twice and expects to return for a third visit. Even if a private hospital treated a claimant’s injuries, the tribunal may seek a disability assessment from a designated medical board. Its report helps the court understand the lasting effects of the injury. The disability percentage is only one factor that determines the compensation. “We need a system that lets claimants update their addresses online and check hospital call letters on a website. The hospital visits can be gruelling. “One client, an auto driver, had to stay at a govt hospital for assessments. He was asked to sleep on the floor. Staffing also limits how quickly hospitals can clear cases. Professors and associate professors who sit on the panels also have to teach and take care of regular patients.
He filed a motor accident claim original petition (MCOP) before the court of small causes. The court also considers the survivor’s age, his earnings before the accident and what the claimant can now do for a living.