The inquiry committee set up by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun to look into the allegation of negligence and other malpractices by Max hospital Dehradun is yet to submit its report even after more than fifty days of setting up of the inquiry. Incidentally the CMO had given a time of only ten days to the inquiry committee to submit its report.
The Additional Commissioner Garhwal, Harak Singh Rawat had alleged that hospital showed utter callousness while treating injured knee of his son Rahul Rawat who also developed an infection. His wife Bhagirathi Rawat, later lodged an FIR against two doctors of Max hospital following which the police sought a report from CMO Dehradun who in turn constituted an inquiry.
The inquiry committee consisting of Dr K C Pant (Physician), Dr R K Tamta (Surgeon), Dr Chetan Giroti and Dr S K Gupta both Orthopaedic surgeons and Dr Pankaj Sharma (Anaesthetist) started its work initially and had questioned the doctors and complainants but later the pace of inquiry slowed down considerably. It is learnt that the committee has not visited the Max hospital even once and has sought the details from the Muzaffarnagar based orthopaedic surgeon who later operated the patient (Rahul). When contacted, Harak Singh Rawat expressed his dismay on slow pace of inquiry. He said that the surprisingly high rate of infection among the admitted patients raises genuine suspicion that the hospital is deliberately doing it to inflate the bill of patients. Rawat said that the inquiry should cover this aspect also.
The CMO of Dehradun, Dr Y S Thapliyal told The Pioneer that the inquiry committee has sought services of a microbiologist so that the Operation Theatre (OT) and other places of the hospital are checked. The CMO said that he has written a letter to Principal of the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) asking him to provide a microbiologist. He claimed that the committee would soon visit the hospital along with a microbiologist.
The delay in inquiry is causing suspicion among experts who are terming it as an attempt to shield the doctors and Max hospital. “There is a clear attempt to shield the hospital. The microbiologist should be the part of the team and on very first day of its constitution the team should have visited the hospital and checked the OT and other places. There is no point visiting the hospital after giving so much time to hospital authorities to correct things in their favour,’’ said one such expert.