Following instructions from District Collector K. Bhaskar, officials of the District Medical and Health Department along with city police seized city-based Sraddha Hospital after the three-member committee appointed to probe the alleged illegal kidney racket case confirmed that the hospital had violated norms in a kidney transplant procedure.
Seizing the hospital, District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO) S. Tirupathi Rao, who is also a member of the committee, said that the owner of the hospital was unavailable at the moment against whom police would take action.
Mr. Tirupathi Rao added that on the instructions of the Collector, the commitee is inspecting the transplantation procedures followed in other hospitals and that their probe is in progress.
It may be recalled that M.R. Peta police arrested two doctors, M. Manjunath (34), an Ayurvedic doctor from Bengaluru, and D. Prabhakar (35), on May 9, on the charges of illegal transplantation of a kidney.
The incident came to light after the complainant, who was also the organ donor, approached the police claiming that the doctors had cheated him after promising a deal.
After the incident, the three-member committee was formed and asked to conduct a probe. The committee confirmed that out of 68 transplantations performed at Sraddha Hospitals, almost 29 were performed without following procedures.
The Visakhapatnam City Police has also constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate how the hospital management managed to perform kidney transplantations in such an unauthorised manner.
