Medical Negligence, Extortion? FIR Filed Against Doctors, Hospital Staff After Court Intervention

Lucknow: Three doctors and staff members of a Khadra-based private hospital recently were booked for allegations of medical negligence and extortion by Madeyaganj police station.

Allegedly, a patient was misled into leaving KGMU Trauma Centre for purportedly better treatment at a private nursing home and later died due to alleged malpractice at the nursing home.

TOI has reported that even though the patient's wife repeatedly complained about the incident to Madeyaganj police and the CMO's office, the police initially refrained from registering an FIR because of an incomplete investigation.

However, the Court intervened and thereafter a case was filed on February 24 at Medeyaganj Police Station.

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As per the latest media report by the Times of India, the complainant, hailing from Golaganj, alleged that her husband Alam was stable at the time of admission to the private nursing home. However, shockingly, an unqualified staff member posed as the hospital's director, and despite lacking a medical degree, the hospital staff allegedly administered an excessive dose of oxygen to the patient, leading to his worsened condition.

Following this, based on the instructions of hospital authorities, the hospital staff allegedly extorted Rs 1.5 lakh from the complainant in the name of bed charges and medicines.

Besides, the complainant also alleged that after her husband's death on November 15, the hospital staff intentionally concealed the information of death and allegedly placed the patient on a ventilator instead at 2:30 PM and demanded Rs 50,000 as charges for the ventilator. The patient was ultimately officially declared dead only at 8 PM.

Later when the complainant demanded her husband's death certificate and discharge records, she was allegedly met with abuse and threats from the hospital authorities.

It has been alleged that the doctors demanded Rs 20,000 for issuing the certificate and threatened the complainant with dire consequences if she escalated the matter to the health officials. 

Meanwhile, the complainant has claimed that she was never provided the death certificate despite following up on the matter for months. Even though the police allegedly refrained from registering an FIR due to an incomplete investigation, the doctors and staff were booked after a court intervention.

TOI has reported that during the investigation into the matter by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), the hospital management could not provide video footage of the patient's death and also failed to produce the credentials of the treating doctor, a supposed DM cardiologist.

Commenting on the issue, the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mahanagar, Neha Tripathi informed that the probe was ongoing and further action would be taken based on the collected evidence.

"A report from the CMO's office is awaited," she further added.

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