india

Updated: Jul 25, 2019 22:25 IST

An inquiry by the Ghaziabad district administration has implicated three government doctors of negligence after they allegedly delayed treatment to a critical infant boy who later died at MMG District Hospital on June 17. The inquiry officer said the doctors refused to attend to the infant and asked his parents to get ₹1 registration slip issued first.

The probe report says Mohammad Irshad, 32, and his wife Rukhsana, 27, had come to the hospital around 10.30am on June 17 with their son, aged one and half months, who had difficulty breathing.

“We first took him to a doctor in Masuri and he referred us to a hospital. We got issued an admission slip from women’s hospital for ₹1. The attending doctors told us that the child should be taken to MMG Hospital,” Irshad said. The women’s hospital and the MMG Hospital share the same premises.

“When we reached MMG Hospital, the doctors did not attend to my child. They told us that we should get another registration slip of ₹1 issued first. My wife kept waiting with the child for 15-20 minutes while I stood in a long queue for the registration slip. Afterwards, she told me that the child was not responding. I rushed him to the emergency but by then, he had stopped breathing. The doctors there declared him dead,” Irshad said.

The administration assigned the inquiry to additional city magistrate Khalid Anjum. “The inquiry established that three doctors on duty did not attend to the ailing child which finally led to his death. The couple had a slip from the women’s hospital, but they still refused to attend to the child. The hospital authority did not provide us the CCTV footage when asked for,” Anjum said.

“I have submitted my report Thursday and the district magistrate will take a call. Instead of getting engaged in formalities, the doctors should have given the treatment first,” he added.

The health department officials denied the charges and said the couple did not meet any doctor. “Our inquiry concluded that the couple never came to the doctors for help. In their written statements, the couple has said the child was breathing heavily and his mother fed him milk and water. This could have worsened his condition. They never met anyone in the hospital nor reported the matter to us,” Dr NK Gupta, chief medial officer, Ghaziabad, said.

“All three doctors are paediatricians. Critical patients are immediately attended to even without documentation formalities. On the day of the incident, there was no reason for them not to attend to the ailing child,” said Dr Ravinder Rana, chief medical superintendent, MMG Hosptial.

The health department officials have alleged that the inquiry report has loopholes and they will approach the district magistrate with their representation.