Video shows Sassoon Hospital Neurosurgery resident doctor allegedly asking patient's kin to buy medical kit, Inquiry Ordered

Pune: A video has gone viral where a senior resident doctor of the neurosurgery department at BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital (SGH) allegedly asked a minor patient's kin to purchase a medical kit worth Rs 24,500 from a private medical store.

In the video, the doctor could be seen asking the relatives of a patient to buy a medical kit at Rs 24,500 from a medical store outside the government hospital. He said that it was necessary during the surgery. He said that one of two patients who underwent surgery a day before died due to the lack of this medical kit. 

However, the patient's relative in the video replied to the doctor saying that he only had Rs 8000 with him. In response, the doctor could be heard saying as per a TOI report "If you didn’t have the money, why did you get the patient here? Go and sell something from the house to arrange the money.”  

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The viral video prompted the authorities to take action and order a probe into the case. Dr Chandrakant Mhaske, dean of BJ Medical College and SGH have ordered a three-member committee headed by Dr Murlidhar Tambe, deputy dean and head of the PSM department to investigate the allegations.

“The committee will conduct a detailed investigation and record the statement of the patient’s kin and the treating doctors. Action will be taken after the reports are received. The statement of the mother was recorded on Wednesday,” said the dean.  

When contacted, Deputy Dean Dr Tambe told TOI, “We are looking into the incident. We have also asked the patient’s relative to come and narrate the entire incident. Besides, the resident doctor in question has been summoned too to present his side of the story. Apparently, the doctor had asked the relative to get the kit for clipping an aneurysm.”

The incident occurred on June 4 after a 17-year-old patient was admitted to the hospital under a free medical scheme for surgery. The doctor accused in this case had earlier asked the mother to purchase medicine from outside following which the family spent Rs 15k for the medicines since they were unavailable in the hospital. Later, the accused doctor once again asked the family to purchase the medical kit at Rs 24,500 which was recorded in the video. 

The alleged malpractice came to light after Zubair Menon, president of the Maharashtra Muslim Conference and a social activist from Kondhwa exposed it by conducting a sting operation at the hospital after receiving information from the patient's family members. 

A team posing as the family members of the patient went to the hospital, confronted the doctor and recorded a video. He then held a press conference on Wednesday to share the details of the incident with the media and the video of the incident went viral on social media.

Speaking to The Free Press Journal, Menon pointed out, "On June 4, our team went to the hospital and confronted the doctor. The doctor allegedly threatened them and demanded money. We made a video of the same. In the video, one can see he's asking for money and demands the family to pay ₹24,500 at a dispensary located at the exit gate of the hospital."  

He further told HT, “There was no prescription, or the doctor asked the relatives only to pay the money at the medical store for a kit. However, the relatives were never asked to get anything from the medical store in exchange for the payment. Even during the treatment, the relatives were asked to get medicines from outside."

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