Survey of anaesthesiologists’ reactions to implementation of laws related to anaesthesia practice

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The anaesthesiologists’ understanding and knowledge of law has an important bearing on issues, related to anaesthesia practice. Lack of such knowledge could also lead to misperceptions affecting both patient care and professional practices. The aim of the study was to find out exact nature of apprehension of the anaesthesia providers towards the implementation of the law related to anaesthesia practice. METHODS: A prospective survey of 875 anaesthesia specialists was conducted during informal meetings personally by the investigator and the responses to a standard set of queries were noted. Also included were the remarks and suggestions related to each query. Three different set of practitioners depending on the place of work (teaching hospital, corporate hospital and small establishments) were queried. RESULTS: The opinions of all three groups of anaesthesiologists did not differ materially. The opinions and views were similar in many aspects and controversy existed in few areas. Major confusion was about how much information should be provided to patients before anaesthesia to obtain informed consent. Opinions were offered for prevention of litigations and how to face litigations but there was the lack of clarity on these issues. CONCLUSIONS: The anaesthesiologists are invariably confused about how exactly they should prevent litigations or respond to them. The majority expressed need for intervention by Indian Society of Anaesthesiologists (ISA) to prepare protocols and set up medico-legal cells.