The Delhi High Court on Wednesday remarked that the government cannot have different standards for private hospitals and those run by them as far as instances of medical negligence are concerned.
Justice Vibhu Bakhru made the remark during the hearing of a plea alleging medical negligence by Safdarjung Hospital in wrongly declaring a newborn dead in June last year.
“The Delhi government closed down Max Hospital [Shalimar Bagh] for two days on a similar issue. There cannot be two standards — one for private hospitals and one for government hospitals,” the court said, asking why no action was taken against the staff or doctors concerned of the hospital.
Premature baby
According to the petition filed by the parents, their baby was born four months premature on June 18 at 5.45 a.m. However, the parents were informed at 6 a.m. the same day that the newborn had passed away and the body was handed over in an envelope for last rites, the petition said.
While taking the infant for cremation a few hours later, it was noticed that the baby was gasping for breath and was rushed back to the hospital. The hospital provided oxygen to the baby, but the infant did not survive for more than 36 hours, the petition added.
A court-appointed committee to probe the medical negligence charge against Safdarjung Hospital held that there did not appear to be any medical negligence on the part of the treating doctors.
The committee concluded that it was not a baby but an ‘abortus’, as it was a 22-week-old foetus, and therefore, “did not merit proactive resuscitation” as it was not capable of surviving.
However, the court refused to accept the stand saying that five-month-old foetuses are known to have survived even if those incidents were rare and therefore it cannot be said that in the instant case the foetus could not have survived.
‘Disturbing manner’
The court was also displeased with the “disturbing” manner in which the foetus was handed over to the family in an envelope and directed the hospital to file an affidavit indicating the person responsible for doing so. The court also asked the government to place before it the file relating to the Max Hospital Shalimar Bagh incident, where one of the twin babies born prematurely on November 30, 2017, was wrongly declared dead and later found to be alive. The baby died a week later.
The court listed the matter for further hearing on January 18.
