The Supreme Court on Friday criticised negligent doctors for medical malpractices.

“Doctors today can do anything. They can leave behind forceps or a scissor inside a patient’s stomach and get away with it,” observed the Vacation Bench of Justices Markandeya Katju and Deepak Verma.

The Bench was hearing an appeal filed by Dr Mahendra Prasad, who challenged the Rs 4 lakh compensation he was ordered to pay patient Pintoo Kumar by the Bihar State Consumer Commission. Pintoo Kumar had alleged that Prasad, a private practitioner at Neha Nursing Home in Buxar, left behind a screw in his body after an operation to set right a leg fracture in 2004. The alleged negligence resulted in complications, warranting another surgery at Apollo hospital. According to the victim, Dr Prasad was not an orthopaedic surgeon. Earlier Kumar had filed a case in the district consumer forum, Buxar, which also held the doctor guilty.