Alleged Medical apathy to pregnant women: NHRC issues notice to UP govt

Lucknow - The NHRC on Monday issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over reports of medical apathy towards two pregnant women in Noida.

It asked the Union Health Ministry to issue instructions to states and UTs not to deny treatment to those needing critical care other than COVID, an official release said.

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An eight-month pregnant woman had died in an ambulance in UP''s Gautam Buddha Nagar after a frantic 13-hour hospital hunt failed to find her a bed as over half-a-dozen facilities denied her treatment, her family claimed on Saturday.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday hit out at the UP government over the matter.

In the second case, as per media reports on Monday, a pregnant woman was brought to the Noida district hospital in an auto-rickshaw, the NHRC said in the release.

When the hospital refused to attend to her, her family tried to arrange an ambulance but in the meantime, the woman delivered a stillborn baby on a pavement, it said.

Taking a suo motu cognisance of these reports, the commission issued the notice to the UP chief secretary for a detailed report in the matter within four weeks, including the action taken against the delinquent doctors/officials.

The commission observed that contents of the news reports, if true, raise a serious issue of the violation of human rights as the state authorities have failed to ensure the right to life and medical care to its citizens.

It is understood that amid the spread of coronavirus, the hospitals are receiving a very large number of patients and there is a shortage of infrastructure but the denial to attend to the patients is a matter of concern, the NHRC said.

"The commission would like to know from the state government whether any standard operating procedure has been issued by it to the hospitals to deal with the current scenario, if yes, all the concerned shall be asked for strict compliance so that lives of the people coming to the hospitals in an emergency for treatment of illnesses other than COVID-19 could also be saved," the release said.

Apart from this, the commission has also sent copies of the press clippings to the Secretary, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to look into the matter and issue-specific instructions to all states and UTs that people coming to the hospitals in emergency for treatment of illness other than COVID-19 are not denied medical treatment and critical support, it added.

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