In an unfortunate incident, the health department of the Delhi government issued a show cause notice to the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) hospital authorities asking to terminate the services of a senior resident doctor. The rationale behind this has been attributed to the death of an injured man who was allegedly denied admission to four hospitals on the night of January 3. Similar notices have been served to three other hospitals that were involved in the incident.
The show cause notice mentioned the entire episode as being unprofessional and unempathetic on the part of the medical officers on duty. It also questions the lack of supervision from the concerned medical director. It has asked the medical director, Dr. Asmita M. Rathore, to explain the lapse on her part within three days of receiving the notice. The services of Dr. Amit, the on-duty senior resident neurosurgeon were terminated on January 3. It has been stated further that failure to adhere to the instructions shall initiate appropriate action against Dr. Rathore as deemed fit.
On the fateful night, the victim, Pramod Kumar, a 47-year-old male, was arrested by the police after a 21-year-old female complained to the police about being harassed by Pramod in an inebriated state. On the way, while being taken to a local police station, Pramod jumped out of a moving police van and suffered grievous injuries. He was then taken to Jag Pravesh Chandra (JPC) hospital by two police personnel in the van.
Pramod was then referred to GTB hospital due to the non-availability of a CT scan in JPC hospital. However, he was refused admission there and referred to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital (LNJP). Subsequently, due to the non-availability of ICU ventilators, he could not be admitted there and was referred to Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital. He was again denied admission there citing the unavailable beds. The injured man was finally brought back to JPC Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries in the wee hours of the next day.
Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj was quoted as saying that the patient was not provided medical treatment in the golden hours and subsequently passed away due to a lack of treatment. He further added that an explanation has been asked from the concerned hospitals involved in the unfortunate incident. He also said that had the Farishtey scheme of the Delhi government been fully operational, the victim could have been taken to a private hospital for treatment.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) informed that since the injured was in police custody and later the death occurred, a magistral inquiry has also been initiated and the local subdivisional magistrate has started probing the matter.
(Inputs from various sources)
(Rehash/Dr. Sushmita Ganguli)