Hospital chain Max Healthcare, whose Shalimar Bagh facility in Delhi lost its licence last week after it wrongly declared a baby dead, filed an appeal on Wednesday asking authorities to reconsider its decision “in the interest of public welfare”.
The hospital said that because of the cancellation of its licence, “planned procedures such as 171 chemotherapies, 63 surgeries and 241 dialysis sessions had to be cancelled, rescheduled or transferred”. It said the decision caused “significant inconvenience to thousands of patients and local residents” and this was further “compounded by unavailability of suitable alternatives” for medical needs in the locality.
“Following the due process of law, we have filed an appeal with the appropriate authority against the cancellation of registration of Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh,” the Max group said in a statement on Wednesday night, according to PTI.
Though it did not specify the “appropriate authority”, sources told India Today that the authority was Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s office – the appellate body in such cases. The hospital has also filed an appeal with the Directorate General of Health Services of the state’s health department.
The hospital has earlier said that the Delhi government’s ruling was harsh, and that its administration was not given an adequate opportunity to be heard.
While announcing the government’s decision on December 8, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had said that the hospital was a habitual offender and that its negligence was unacceptable. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also said that though the government did not want to interfere in the functioning of a private hospital, “open loot or criminal negligence by any hospital won’t be tolerated”.
A baby and his twin sister who were prematurely born at the Shalimar Bagh hospital on November 30 were declared stillborn.
When the parents were on their way to a crematorium to perform the last rites, they found that the boy was still alive, and rushed him to another hospital. However, the baby died later at a private nursing home. The parents also alleged that Max Hospital had handed the babies to them in a plastic bag.
A panel set up by the Delhi government found that the hospital did not conduct an electrocardiography test to check whether the babies were alive.
Fortis Hospital case
An expert panel set up by the Haryana government has found Gurugram’s Fortis Hospital guilty of negligence in the case of the death of a seven-year-old girl in September, The Indian Express reported on Thursday. The panel found that “withdrawal of life support by the hospital in the ambulance amounts to negligence and is against law”.
The girl, who was suffering from dengue, spent nearly 15 days on ventilator support, during which the hospital allegedly charged her parents more than Rs 15 lakh.
The panel submitted its report to the Haryana government on December 5. It said that under the garb of “leave against medical advice”, the hospital “disposes of patients in an unethical manner when attendants no longer want to continue the treatment”.
Following the report, an FIR was filed against the doctor who treated the girl. On Tuesday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court questioned the Haryana government on why it has booked only one doctor in the case.
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