Nursing Home sealed shut after 18 People Lose Eyesight During Cataract Operation

Located in Barharwa, the Jharkhand Seva Sadan Nursing Home was sealed on Wednesday, 27^th October 2021.

Deputy Commissioner, Sri Ramniwas Yadav, ordered closure of the faciility based on the report of a six-member inquiry committee which was set up on October 23.

The initial probe found that the hospital did not have requisite equipment and infrastructure to conduct cataract surgeries. The administration apprehended that there could be a rise in such cases as the hospital management also failed to furnish exact figures of Ayushman Bharat who were treated at their facility.

Chief minister Hemant Soren who was on a two-day visit to Sahebganj (October 25-26) directed Yadav to take necessary steps to treat the victims and suitable action against the private hospital. The inquiry committee which inspected Jharkhand Sewa Sadan on October 25 has submitted in the report, the copy of which is available with the Times of India, that the infrastructural facilities available in the Jharkhand Sewa Sadan Nursing Home of Barharwa did not suit the prescribed standard leading to the deterioration in the vision of cataract patients having undergone the surgery between October 5 and October 7.

"A detailed investigation against the hospital is still underway. After it is complete, FIRs will be lodged against the hospital administration and the doctors who performed the surgeries," Yadav told TOI.

The patients who lost their eye sight during the catastrophic incident are currently being treated at hospitals in Kolkata and Ranchi.

This is truly a blemish on the medical fraternity as all the doctors are required to take the Hippocratic Oath which clearly instructs them to 'Do No Harm'. Enquiries into the matter are underway.