Boy with fractured arm allegedly turned away by 2 Delhi Hospitals, Health Minister orders probe

New Delhi: Two state-run hospitals in  East Delhi — Dr Hedgewar Aarogya Sansthan and Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya have come under the public spotlight for allegedly denying treatment to an eight-year-old boy with a broken left arm for reasons like shortage of medical supplies and unavailability of an orthopaedic doctor. 

TOI covering the story highlighted the case of the boy who was turned away by these hospitals which prompted his father, a security guard with a monthly salary of Rs 15,000 to seek medical treatment for his son from a private medical facility and cough up an amount of Rs 13,000, including a doctor’s consultation fee.

While one hospital stated that they did not have any cotton available, the other hospital stated that there was no orthopaedic doctor available for treatment after the consultation period.

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Expressing concern about the incident, Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj wrote a letter to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena demanding strict action against officials responsible for the non-availability of medicines and consumables at Delhi govt health facilities. 

Moreover, he also called for a comprehensive investigation to be carried out within a specific timeframe to hold them responsible for distorting facts and misleading the government.

The incident took place on April 1, however, it was brought to attention by social activist Ashok Agarwal on the social networking site X, previously known as Twitter. The boy, a Class II student of an MCD primary school in Karkardooma severely fractured his left arm while playing in the school and was rushed to Dr Hedgewar Aarogya Sansthan's emergency ward by the school administration.

The doctor on duty there referred the boy to another healthcare centre for slab application and asked him to buy cotton since it was unavailable at the hospital.  On his emergency card, the doctor wrote, “Cotton was not available, patient advised to buy, referred to higher centre for slab application.”

Following this, the school informed his father who took his son to Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya where the staff informed them that no doctor was available. "We were told that no doctor was available as it was already 5.30 pm and doctors leave the hospital at 3 pm,” Kumar told TOI. 

Frustrated with the delay in treatment, his father approached a private hospital- Chandra Laxmi Hospital in Vaishali Sector 4. The doctors there plastered his fractured arm around 12.30 am.

“Instead of running to yet another govt hospital, we decided to go to a private one as my son was in a lot of pain for several hours,” Kumar said. 

The boy's father who works as a security guard with a monthly salary of Rs 15,000 invested Rs 13000 at the private facility after borrowing the money from his father. 

The incident soon gained the attention of Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj after TOI published the article on April 4. Bharadwaj expressed his disappointment with his secretary, who allegedly gave him incorrect information about the condition of government hospitals in Delhi. He pointed out that the senior officials in the Health and Family Welfare Department appeared to be either unaware of the actual situation or deliberately ignoring the urgent problem.

He stated that he had repeatedly instructed the chief secretary and the health secretary to ensure that medications and supplies were available in all healthcare facilities under the Delhi government. Despite expecting prompt action from the officials, he accused them of intentionally deceiving him about the situation.

This comes after a meeting was held on March 15 about the availability of medicines and consumables where all MS/MDs were informed that all the essential medicines, consumables and testing facilities are available in the hospitals. 

Bharadwaj said, "The poorer and most impoverished categories of people in the society were dependent on the free services at these facilities because they couldn’t afford expensive private facilities. It is tragic that a child with a broken arm was turned away from two govt hospitals and the poor family had to cough up a prohibitive amount at a private hospital."

“What is the use of a hospital if it doesn’t have something as basic as cotton? There may be many such incidents that may have occurred and have not been reported,” he added.

Ashok Agarwal who was the first to raise the issue took it to the District High Court on April 4. In a post on X, he wrote "Today I raised this issue in the DHC. Judges expressed displeasure on such non-stop happenings. Parents with the child were also present in the courtroom."

Speaking to TOI, he said it was “painful that a small child has to suffer because of the system’s incompetence”.

Dr Ritesh Ranjan, casualty in charge at Hedgewar Hospital said Cotton was not available at the time when the boy reached the hospital seeking emergency treatment. However, TOI reported that he could not provide a reason and claimed that he did not look after purchases or stocks.

Meanwhile, the additional medical superintendent of Hedgewar Hospital Mirtunjay Kumar, said, “There was some miscommunication as cotton was available in a store but somehow did not reach the emergency ward.” 

On the other hand, Dr Seema Kapoor, director of Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya, said,"We have two orthopaedic consultants at the hospital, who are available from 9 am till 4 pm. We have paediatric super-speciality orthopaedic services but they are timebound and tailored. We have requested Delhi govt for additional staff." The consultation time has now been extended to 8 pm on all working days.

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