CHENNAI: The Directorate of Medical Education (DME) has disbursed compensation for those infected by Hepatitis C while undergoing haemodialysis at the Government Stanley Medical College.
A senior official told Express that a compensation of `3 lakh each had been disbursed to 14 of the 16 affected persons, while the kin of the other two would receive it soon. The State government had issued a GO in this regard following a direction from the Madras High Court.
After the issue came to public attention, an Aam Aadmi Party functionary Jayaram Venkatesan moved a PIL in the HC.
In its interim order, the court directed the Health Department to extend adequate interim compensation to the affected parties, failing which, it warned, the Secretary would have to appear in the court personally.
In the GO, the Health Department stressed that the inquiry committee that probed the matter had concluded that there was no wilful negligence on the part of the Nephrology Department. “Though the committee constituted did not find fault in the action of the doctors or other staff for the HCV infection during the course of dialysis to some of the patients in Government Stanley Medical College Hospital, the government has decided to consider the 16 patients who were alleged to have suffered HCV infection and to sanction payment of compensation to them as a special case,” the GO said. The order directed the DME to disburse the compensation to the 16 persons or their kin.