LUCKNOW: The authorities investigating into the recent death of a pregnant woman, who was allegedly denied admission to eight hospitals and died in an ambulance in Noida, have inferred that the private hospitals made lame “excuses” as a pretext to deny her admission.
The report corroborated the charge levelled by the victim Neelam’s husband Brijendra that she had to shuttle between hospitals for admission.
The eight-month pregnant woman died in an ambulance in Gautam Buddha Nagar after a frantic 13-hour hospital hunt failed to find her a bed as over half-a-dozen facilities denied her treatment, her family had claimed on Saturday.
Even the NHRC had also issued a notice to UP government over reports of medical apathy towards two pregnant women in Noida. It asked the Union Health Ministry to issue instructions to states and UTs not to deny treatment to those needing critical care other than COVID, an official release said.
The administrative probe was ordered by Gautam Buddh Nagar DM Suhas LY under the Gautam Budh Nagar CMO and ADM Finance on Sunday.
As per the sources, the report fixed the accountability of the District Hospital saying that if it was not possible to admit the patient there, a senior official of the hospital should have contacted a higher health centre for referral.
In this case, the patient was not attended by any senior official, and was just turned away, said the report. The sources claimed that the probe report it was mentioned that given the gravity of the situation, action would be taken against a staff and a ward nurse. Moreover, a recommendation for the transfer of CMS
Dr. Vandana Sharma had also been made and a letter had been written to the state health department for the appointment of a new CMS, added the sources.
Indicting the ESIC Hospital in Sector 24, one the first hospitals approached by the victim’s family, the report claimed that there were “adequate” ventilators in the hospital and yet the woman was not admitted and referred to GIMS Hospital, Greater Noida.
The patient was then dropped outside the Sector 30 Hospital without informing the doctors or staff present, the report said recommending action against the ambulance driver and the ESIC Hospital staff, said the sources.
The report also mentioned that the private hospitals made an excuse that they did not have beds. This delay led to the death of the patient and the hospital staff on duty at the time were held guilty in the report.
As per the report, the district administration would now be issuing notices to the hospitals. In the event of finding the private hospitals violating Supreme Court guidelines, FIR would be filed against them.
As per the sources, the victim’s family had approached Max Hospital, Fortis Hospital, Shivalik Hospital and Jaypee Hospital, apart from the government hospitals on the fateful day but to no avail. Even Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) too turned the patient away.
In the second case, as per media reports on Monday, a pregnant woman was brought to the Noida district hospital in an auto-rickshaw, the NHRC said in a release.
When the hospital refused to attend to her, her family tried to arrange an ambulance but in the meantime, the woman delivered a stillborn baby on a pavement, it said.
Taking a suo motu cognisance of these reports, the commission issued the notice to the UP chief secretary for a detailed report in the matter within four weeks, including the action taken against the delinquent doctors/officials.
The commission observed that contents of the news reports, if true, raise a serious issue of the violation of human rights as the state authorities have failed to ensure the right to life and medical care to its citizens.