Close to midnight, the family arrived at Bhopal's Sultania hospital

The family of a 20-year-old HIV patient, who had just given birth to a baby, has alleged that she was denied treatment at a hospital in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal.To deliver the baby, she was first admitted at a government hospital in Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's constituency Sehore.However, doctors there asked her family to take her to a bigger hospital in Bhopal, 40 kilometres away, after her haemoglobin count fell dangerously low.The family alleged Sultania hospital in Bhopal did not admit her since she was HIV positive. The family had to return to Sehore again.Close to midnight, they arrived at Sultania hospital, one of the biggest government hospitals in Madhya Pradesh for childbirths.The family said their repeated requests for treatment went unheeded and they were told to go back to the Sehore hospital, which they did after waiting some four hours."We were told to wait... then they shouted at us and said you are not doing some favour to us by coming here," a family member told NDTV.The superintendent of Sultania Hospital said he will seek details from the doctors and take action. "We will ask the HOD (head of department)... if it is true, we will take action. I will also consult the dean and higher authorities," Dr Karan Peepre said.The opposition has sought an apology from the ruling BJP government, while the Bharatiya Janata Party has said there was no discrimination against the HIV positive woman.

Congress spokesperson Noori Khan said, "HIV patient was made to suffer. The chief minister should apologise and answer."BJP spokesperson Rahul Kothari said doctors in Sehore felt that she should be treated in a bigger hospital. "So they referred her to Bhopal where she was also treated. There was no discrimination," Mr Kothari said.