Bombay high court orders state govt to form committee to frame rules for city’s civic hospitals

The Bombay high court has directed the state government to constitute a committee to come up with a standard operating procedure (SOP) to avoid incidents of adverse drug reaction among patients admitted to civic hospitals in Mumbai.

The committee will be headed by a joint director of the Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration and have a medical superintendent of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as its member secretary. The committee will also comprise a joint director each from medical education and drugs department, and public health department.

A division bench of justice Bhushan Gavai and justice Bharati Dangre has directed the committee to examine BMC’s medicine procurement system and suggest measures to ensure only WHO-compliant medicines, drugs and equipment are purchased in civic hospitals.

The committee will also suggest the staff strength required for civic hospitals in Mumbai and devise a mechanism to transmit patient history to the staff concerned before any drugs are administered to them.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar, complaining about administration of sub-standard antibiotic drugs to women and children in Bhaba Hospital at Kurla. He alleged in April 2014, 28 women suffered severe reaction to certain injections and one of them, Saira Shaikh, succumbed to it. The petitioner mentioned a similar incident at a civic hospital in Bhiwandi, where 18 children had suffered. In August 2014, 10 women being treated at BMC’s Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar had suffered owing to a similar reaction.

The judges, however, said the affidavit of respondent authorities showed the adverse reaction was not owing to sub-standard quality, but because of the manner of administration.