Panipat hospital OT sealed, inquiry marked
Dharmendra Joshi
Tribune News Service
Panipat, March 14
The operation theatre (OT) of Navjeewan Hospital here was sealed following reports of 14 persons developing eye infection after being operated for cataract in the hospital on March 11.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Samir Pal Srow told The Tribune: “The OT has been sealed so that no one can try to tamper with the evidence. Secondly, if there is any infectious instrument or medicine in the OT, it will be prevented to cause any damage to patients.”
Srow ordered a magisterial inquiry by Panipat SDM Subhash Sheoran into the incident. He will be assisted by Civil Surgeon Inderjeet Dhankhar, two eye specialists and a microbiologist.
The DC said the inquiry officer was instructed to submit his report within two days.
“The inquiry will not only to look into medical negligence, but also into the role of Samalkha-based Samaj Sewa Society in conducting mass operations. It will be found out whether or not it had taken prior permission from the Civil Surgeon for the operations,” Srow said.
Civil Surgeon Dr Inderjeet Dhankhar admitted that no prior permission was taken from him for conducting mass eye operations. “As per initial reports, the society had not organised a camp. It has been conducting eye operations at regular intervals.” He added that the society had not got the permission to run the hospital.
When asked can a society run hospital for conducting operations without prior permission, Dr Dhankhar said: “As the Hospital Establishment Act is not applicable in Haryana, any society may run as hospital without the prior permission.”
Eye camp wasn’t organised: Outfit chief
Samaj Sewa Society president Sohan Lal said his outfit had been running a charitable eye hospital in Samalkha for the past seven years and Dr Ankur Gupta of Navjeewan Hospital used to render his services free of cost. “Since the OT at the Samalkha hospital was being renovated, he called the patients at his hospital on March 11 after their initial check-up in Samalkha a day before,” he said.
Sohan Lal denied that any eye camp was organised. He, though, claimed that operations were conducted at regular intervals at the Samalkha hospital.
The DC said: “Whenever any such negligence comes to the fore, the organisers start making excuse that they were not holding any camp. After an inquiry report is submitted, appropriate action will be taken against the culprits.”
Dr Gupta could not be contacted, His mother, Dr Pushpa Gupta, told The Tribune that he had gone to PGI, Chandigarh, to look after the patients.
Victims’ kin account
Relatives of the patients are worried a lot about their health. Shanti Kaur’s husband Dilip Singh of Patti Kalyana village said his wife’s eye had swollen and she started feeling severe pain on March 11 night.
Passi Devi’s son Subhash Chandra of Bhorwal Majri village and Shanti Devi’s daughter-in-law Kamla of Kivana village said their pain was unbearable after the operation.
When they were taken to the Samalkha hospital on March 12, some drops administered to them. Doctors told the patients’ family not to worry. But the pain aggravated and they were again taken them to the Samalkha hospital, from where they were taken to the Panipat hospital on March 13 and later shifted to the PGI, Chandigarh.
