Hospital owner, wife among 3 docs booked

Mukesh Tandon

Tribune News Service

Panipat, December 16

The police on the recommendation of the district appropriation authority (DAA) have booked the owner of a private hospital along with his wife and another doctor for allegedly violating the PCPNDT Act.

A team of the Health Department comprising Dr Sudhir Batra, Deputy Civil Surgeon, and Dr Shalini Mehta, Medical Officer, raided Amar Hospital at Madlauda here on Wednesday. Dr Batra said a decoy woman customer was sent to Amar Hospital for an ultrasound and Dr Suman Gehlawat and Dr Narender Garg conducted the test on her. They conducted two ultrasounds--abdominal and transvaginal, he added. While Dr Narender Garg (MBBS) was registered with the Health Department, Dr Suman Gehlawat, who is BAMS, was not, he said. The PCPNDT Act states that doctors without registration couldn't conduct ultrasound, Dr Batra added.

Meanwhile, a telephone call from a senior government functionary was received at the hospital during the raid and the department team decided not to register a case in the matter. Dr Mehta refused to sign the papers and Dr Batra had to call Dr Jitender Rathi, in charge of the Madlauda primary health centre, to sign these, sources said. The raiding team sealed the ultrasound machine and sent a report to the district-level advisory committee. After discussing the matter at a meeting of the advisory committee, the report was sent to the DAA. Dr SL Verma, Civil Surgeon-cum-Chairperson of the DAA, said, “The DAA has recommended registration of a case against Dr Narender Gehlawat, owner of Amar Hospital, his wife Dr Suman Gehlawat and Dr Narender Garg”. “The police have registered a case against the doctors under various sections of the PCPNDT Act,” said Dr Verma.