Acting on plea moved by a woman who lost her nine-month-old foetus due to alleged lapses in a government hospital here, the Delhi High Court on Monday directed the constitution of an expert panel to inspect infrastructure, manpower, and procurement process in the city’s government hospitals.
Madhu Bala, a school teacher, decided to shed light on the “dangerously dilapidated health system” in hospitals run by the government, following an incident in GTB Hospital that rendered her childless.
In the plea, Ms. Bala said that interference of the High Court was needed to save citizens from the clutches of medical deaths and other serious health hazards and trauma owing to ineptness in the hospitals.
Dearth of facilities
Advocate Prashant Manchanda, representing Ms. Bala, said analysis of the affidavits filed by the government hospitals “clearly shows that there is an acute shortage of manpower in Delhi government hospitals and glaring dearth of medical facilities”.
He said the status of crucial medical equipment enlisted by the LNJP Hospital shows that out of total 1,352 equipment only 1,107 are functional.
In DDU Hospital, advocate Manchanda said, the total vacancies of doctors, para medics, resident doctor and nursing staff, and non medical staff ran as high as 233.
In GB Pant Hospital there is serious dearth of infrastructural facilities apart from total vacancies of 494, he said, adding that there is also a shortfall of 116 equipments in the hospital’s Cardiology Department.
“In [GB Pant Hospital] the Gastroenterology Department out of 30 important equipment, there is a shortfall of 23 equipments,” he said adding: “Whereas, in endoscopy+EUS+nanometry system against the ideal requirement of 235 equipment there is a shortfall of 178 equipment”.
His report said that GTB Hospital had 1,183 vacancies while Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital had a total of 212 vacancies.
A Bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Anup J. Bhambhani on Monday asked Ms. Bala and counsel for the authorities to propose names comprising experts, doctors, social workers, technocrats, bureaucrats, engineers, accountants etc. who may be nominated as member of the committee.
Shocking negligence
In the plea, Ms. Bala said that nine months into her pregnancy on December 14, 2015, she was admitted to the general ward of GTB Hospital even though her blood pressure was higher than normal.
She said that the general ward had smelly linen and beds infested with cockroaches and rats. Ms. Bala added that two pregnant women were cramped onto almost every bed. Doctors and paramedical staff left the expecting mothers alone for long durations, she added.
Next morning at 8 a.m. a doctor visited her and allegedly told her to monitor the movement of her foetus and blood pressure, and maintain her own case chart.
After leaving her to fend for herself on December 17, 2015, she was informed about her foetus’ descending position.
She claimed that she was left in that state and no operation was performed as the authorities claimed that there was no operation theatre available.
“Resultantly, the foetus breathed its last in the womb. Few hours later, the petitioner was informed that her child had died in her womb,” the plea stated.
“She was left in that state for three more days and eventually a Caesarean Operation was performed to take out the three-day-old dead foetus on December 20,” the plea read.
Advocate Manchanda said that in an RTI reply, GTB hospital has admitted to 45,000 deaths over a period of five years from January 2008 to February 2013 with infant mortality and maternal deaths accounting for over 25% of the total number.