Patient safety is a paramount concern in healthcare, with patients placing their trust and well-being in the hands of medical professionals. However, despite the dedication and expertise of healthcare providers, medical negligence remains a significant issue, impacting countless lives worldwide. Understanding medical negligence and its implications is crucial for both patients and healthcare practitioners. Here are a few facts shedding light on the healthcare environment where patient safety takes precedence:

1. License: Academically non-qualified people and people without license to practice medicine shall not treat anyone medically. The witch doctors who have not got any educational qualification cannot medically administer a patient and if the patient dies during the treatment, such unqualified persons are sentenced to imprisonment for life.
2. Experience Counts: A person having quite a long experience in matters of medical treatment however, are allowed to engage in treatment procedures of a common nature.
3. Insane Patients: A mentally insane patient cannot be treated in the absence of permission from that person’s parents or guardians.
4. Drugs: No one authorized to sell medicines shall distribute harmful drugs without a prescription from a qualified practitioner. It is also illegal to adulterate drugs to reduce their efficacy or sell them as genuine drugs. Medicines must not be sold after their expiration date, and specific precautions must be taken in their sale. Furthermore, selling one type of drug as another is prohibited for those authorized to sell or distribute drugs under the law.
5. Informed Consent: In the doctor-patient relationship, informed consent is essential. Patients must receive adequate information about their illness, treatment options, alternatives, and potential consequences, empowering them to make decisions. This consent must be documented in writing by the medical practitioner. A general consent during hospital admission doesn't cover all needed procedures.
6. Exception: The requirement of consent is not necessary if the situation is an emergency meaning that, any delay in treatment would result in increased morbidity and mortality.
7. Medico-legal Cases: Examination of medico-legal cases such as victims or suspects of sexual offenses, physical assault, autopsy examinations, age estimations, etc., should be carried out by trained or expert medical practitioners.
8. Limitation: If a doctor’s negligence causes damage to the patient, a lawsuit must be filed within 6 months from the incident in some cases and within a year in other cases. But there shall be no limitation to file a lawsuit for the death of a person due to negligent behavior of the person in charge.

Under the Nepalese legal system, patient safety against medical negligence has been provisioned within: