A four-year-old survivor of sexual assault, brought to Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH) on October 2, was denied primary care and no effort was made to stabilise her. Instead, she was quickly referred to Sassoon General Hospital. Last week, after the intervention of politicos, the duty doctor at the hospital at the time of the incident was suspended, and the facility’s medical superintendent was issued a strict warning for this gross negligence.

Action was taken by the commissioner of Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), Shravan Hardikar, after he found the explanations offered by the medical officials involved to be unsatisfactory. Hardikar has also warned the medical superintendent, Dr Manoj Deshmukh, that he is likely to face stringent action if any negligence in found in his discharge of duties.

When the child, a resident of Bijlinagar, was brought to the hospital, doctor on duty Dr Tushar Rajput alerted Deshmukh of the case. Subsequently, without attending to her, she was packed off to Sassoon. Interestingly, the issue was investigated only after a few corporators took it up on October 6. They pointed out that Deshmukh handled the case rather casually, without taking into cognisance its gravity.

A showcause notice was issued to Deshmukh on October 19. In his response, he insisted that the girl was given primary care before being sent to Sassoon, as YCMH is not equipped to handle such patients. The survivor needed both physical and mental care, he argued. Not convinced by these explanations, Hardikar issued the warning and the matter has been entered into Deshmukh’s service record. “We took action as the answers given by the doctors were unsatisfactory. It was a clear case of negligence,” the commissioner reiterated.

PCMC health chief, Dr K Anil Roy, added, “The decision was taken by the PCMC chief, who looked into issue closely after it was brought up by corporators. The junior doctor suspended was a contractual employee.”