The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) on Thursday said there was an attempt to malign the image of the Sundar Lal Hospital, which is attached to it, after a joint probe by the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government concluded that an industrial-grade gas was administered to patients undergoing surgery.
The probe has been initiated into the unusual number of deaths in the surgery ward of the hospital. In its probe report, dated July 18 but made public only now, the U.P. Food Safety and Drug Administration found that “non-pharmacopoeial grade nitrous oxide” was being used in the hospital. “The gas does not fall under any category of drugs,” the report said. Investigators are, however, yet to conclude if the use of industrial gas was directly responsible for the deaths.
A separate RTI query also concluded that an Allahabad-based private firm, Parerhat Industrial Enterprises, which was supplying nitrous oxide to the hospital, did not have any licence to produce or supply medical gas of any kind. An FIR had been lodged at Varanasi’s Lanka Police Station in June, after the kin of a deceased person from Allahabad complained of negligence.
“The said firm does not have a licence to supply medical nitrous oxide and medical oxygen gas,” said K.G. Gupta, Assistant Drug Inspector, Allahabad Division, in a reply to an RTI query by an advocate, Ravindra Singh.
The director of the firm is the father of BJP MLA from North Allahabad, Harshwardhan Bajpai.
The BHU has described the reports quoting the probe findings as “misleading” and an “attempt to malign the dignity, prestige and image” of SS Hospital, Institute of Medical Sciences, BHU.
“The matter is sub judice and under consideration of the Allahabad High Court. As such, all the parties ought to have patience and wait for the judgment,” said Om Prakash Upadhyay, Medical Superintendent, Sunderlal Hospital.
The Allahabad High Court had ordered an investigation after more than a dozen patients passed away in the surgery ward of the hospital between June 6 and June 8.
Referring to a news item by an English daily, which had reported that 14 patients had lost their lives in the hospital between June 6 and 8, the BHU said it had a “strong objection” to the report.
