Rajasthan hospital draws fire for religion bias after staff chats go viral

JAIPUR: A private hospital in Rajasthan’s Churu district is being investigated for alleged religious discrimination after leaked screenshots from a purported WhatsApp group chat involving the medical staff showed they had been discussing ways to avoid treating Muslims with Covid-19 symptoms.
Police received a complaint against the hospital at Sardarshahar even as its owner, Dr Sunil Choudhary, went on Facebook to apologise on behalf of his staff for the discriminatory private chats that became public. However, he denied that any patient had been turned away on the basis of religion.
One of the screenshots from the group chat reads: “Stop attending to Muslim patients.” Another participant responds with: “Had a Hindu patient tested positive for corona and the doctor was a Muslim, he probably wouldn’t have treated the person. I won’t attend to a Muslim in OPD...Tell them madam is not here.”
Choudhary said the chats were from April 8, by which time many people who attended the Tablighi Jamaat meets in Delhi in March had tested positive for Covid-19. “I have records of all our patients and can prove that we have treated Muslim patients as well. I was not even aware of the chat among my staff. I have tendered an apology and am ready to face a police investigation, too,” he told TOI.