Doc who turned away pregnant Kupwara woman suspended

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, January 21

The authorities of the Srinagar Government Medical College (GMC) have suspended the doctor on duty who had turned away a pregnant woman from Lal Ded Hospital on Thursday.

The doctor is pursuing her postgraduation from the GMC with which Lal Ded Hospital is associated.

The decision follows a meeting of the GMC authorities and the medical superintendents of all associated hospitals in Srinagar on Monday. It was chaired by Adviser to Governor K Vijay Kumar through videoconferencing from Jammu.

“We have suspended the doctor concerned,” GMC principal Prof Samia Rasheed told The Tribune. The meeting also discussed steps needed to prevent such incidents. A protocol was developed for dealing with referrals from peripheral hospitals.

Earlier, the inquiry into the incident involving Kupwara’s Suraya, who delivered a baby on roadside in Srinagar after she was allegedly turned away by Lal Ded Hospital, found that the doctor on duty was guilty of negligence as she reportedly violated the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for referrals.

In its report to the GMC principal, the inquiry committee headed by its chairperson Prof Farhat Jabeen has, however, noted that the doctor on duty had sent the patient for further investigation and ultrasound (USG) and the “doctor with her clinical assessment and USG findings did not anticipate a precipitate delivery” as the lady after leaving the hospital delivered on road.

The report notes that USG findings were suggestive of a 34-week baby with breech presentation. “The doctor with her clinical examination/USG findings did not anticipate precipitate delivery in her, although the doctor went against the SOP for referral by not admitting the patient,” reads the report.