Awareness about Consumer Protection Act among patients visiting a private dental institute at Dharwad: A Descriptive study

Objectives: To assess the knowledge regarding CPA among patients visiting a private dental institution at Dharwad. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive survey was carried out on 400 patients visiting a private dental college at Dharwad and the data was collected through an interview based questionnaire consisting of 13 closed ended questions on CPA. Statistical analysis was done using Chi-square test. Results: 62% of the study participants have heard about CPA, but only 30% knew that dental services are applicable under CPA and in case of medical service fault/error, 54% participants would visit police station. 80% of the participants don’t even know the location of consumer court. And many patients think that to approach consumer court they will have to pay fees and hire a lawyer. Conclusion: Knowledge of patients regarding CPA is low. Instead of going to lawyer or consumer court, more than half of the study population would prefer to go to police station. This shows that despite of presence of such benefical legislation people are unaware of it. Doctor’s tries to provide best services to their patient but still sometimes their negligence can cause an injury to patient. If people becomes more aware of their rights and legislations this would improve the quality of services. Keywords: Consumer protection act, Knowledge, Awareness, Dentist, Patient