A team of doctors examine residents of Vallabh Nagar locality in wake of the coronavirus pandemic, in Bhopal, Friday, May 1, 2020. (PTI Photo)(PTI01-05-2020_000239B)

The Indore district administration on Friday temporarily suspended the license of Gokuldas Hospital, a private hospital in the biggest city of Madhya Pradesh, after the death of four patients on Thursday followed by allegations by their relatives that the hospital was negligent.

The administration was prodded into action after a video made by relatives of the deceased went viral. In the videos, the relatives alleged the hospital was in a hurry to move from the yellow category (suspects are treated) to green category (non-COVID facility) and paid no attention to the patients admitted there.

A team of doctors, led by Indore chief medical and health officer Dr Praveen Jadia, visited the hospital and collected treatment papers of the dead patients. Dr Jadia said on Friday that while the hospital’s license has been cancelled, only a probe will establish whether it was guilty of negligence and appropriate action will follow. He said the first death took place around 11.30 on Thursday and the rest in the evening.

When asked about allegations by relatives of other patients who had been turned away by the hospital management, Dr Jadia said the team was looking into it. He said the Collector of Mandsaur district had also written a letter to the Indore administration based on a complaint that the hospital had refused to treat a Mandsaur patient who later died.

Denying the allegations on Thursday’s deaths, Dr Sanjay Gokuldas of the hospital said the hospital was being falsely accused of negligence. He said the four patients aged 55, 64, 74, and 78 suffered from critical illnesses and their health updates were being regularly provided to the health control room and the nodal officer.

Referring to the charge that in its hurry to turn into green category the hospital was discharging patients early, Dr Gokuldas claimed the decision to discharge patients was taken by a team appointed by the district administration, not the hospital. He said getting the hospital sanitized was a routine procedure and denied the charge that the deaths took place within half an hour. He said the relatives of the patients owe amounts ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 3.25 lakh.

In the video, relatives had alleged that the patients’ condition was stable but they suddenly died because the hospital wanted to discharge them early so that it could turn green soon. “We are giving money yet we are getting dead bodies,” a relative said.

Another said the hospital should have allowed them to shift patients to others hospital where their lives could have been saved.