The State capital on Friday woke up to a shocker from RIMS, the State’s premier hospital, where food was served to a woman patient on the floor of the gallery of Orthopedic Ward and “she filled with hunger ate her food with her fractured hands, while indifferent and unconcerned staff who had served the food, moved with their trolley by making mockery of the helplessness of the patient.”
The Jharkhand High Court, taking suo motu cognizance of the report in this regard carried by a newspaper, issued notices to the Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary, Department of Health, Medical Education & Family Welfare, and also the Director, RIMS.
Fixing the next date to hear the case on September 28, a Division bench headed by Chief Justice Virender Singh also directed the RIMS Director to submit a detailed report with regard to “the state of affair, as captured by the media as also with regard to the amenities and facilities that are provided or offered to the patients in the hospital and what measures the management is adhering in order to have a total control over the entire things in the hospital.”
The court observed that such treatment given to the patients is not only against the law governing the safety of patients within the hospital, but it is also an offence within the ambit of Section 336 of the Indian Penal Code, inasmuch as this negligent act causes danger to human life and safety. “And above all, the inhuman treatment meted out to the patients is in breach of the constitutional mandate enshrined under Article 21,” the court observed.
Chief Minister Raghubar Das also ordered Health Minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi and concerned officials to prepare a detailed report of the incident and take strict action against all the erring officials.
Thereafter, Health Secretary K Vidyasagar formed a three-member team comprising Special Secretary, Joint Secretary and Director, Medical education to gather the details of the incident. The team on Friday further investigated the matter and interrogated the RIMS staff about the incident.
As a damage control exercise, the RIMS administration suspended a kitchen staff Chandramani Prasad of RIMS accused of serving food to a woman on the corridor floor.
The health department has also asked RIMS administration to make some proper alternate arrangements of all such marginalized patients who are forced to reside in corridor for treatment and have been denied of all basic services and assistance by the hospital management.
The RIMS administration, on the other hand, has accepted its fault in the case and has assured that such an incident will not be repeated again. “We came to know about the incident in the morning. It was shocking and all the kitchen staffs have been directed to be sensitive enough while dealing with the patients. At present, on the daily basis, we serve approximately 1100 patients. We are having staff crunch and it need to be addressed immediately for boosting the catering services at RIMS,” said Dietician cum Kitchen Incharge at RIMS, Meenakshi Kumari.
Similarly, expressing concern over the entire incident, Medical Superintendent of RIMS, Kumari Basundhara, added, “The incident was appalling and the hospital management will ensure that all necessary steps are considered to fill all the loop holes in the system and no such incident will take place in future again.”