Surat hospital sealed for want of fire NOC, a day after inauguration

The hospital is owned by Dr B R Shukla, Dr G P Mishra, and Dr R K Dubey.

Talking to The Indian Express, Pandesara police inspector H M Gadhvi said, “Surat police had registered cases against Dr Shukla and Dr Dubey as they were running their clinics in Bamroli area without showing valid degrees. Dr Mishra has three prohibition cases filed against him in 2020 – one each in Surat City, Surat Rural and Navsari police station. All three are out on bail.”

The hospital management had extended invitation cards to Surat Municipal Commissioner Shalini Agrawal, requesting her to be the chief guest, and Surat Police Commissioner Anupam Singh Gahlaut and Joint Police Commissioner, Traffic and Crime, Raghvendra Vatsa, asking them to be guests of honour. While Agrawal and Gahlaut gave the event a miss, Vatsa was present on Sunday afternoon.

With top city officials invited to the event, officials from Pandesara police area and the Surat Municipal Corporation also arrived at the event.

However, as soon as the invitation card started doing the rounds on social media, several people pointed out the antecedents of the owners, prompting the teams from the Surat fire department and CDHO to reach the hospital on Monday.

Surat Fire officer Ishwar Patel said, “The hospital authorities have installed fire safety equipment but it is not up to the mark. The system was in non-operational condition and there was no emergency exit. The authorities had not even applied for the Fire Safety Certificate.”

The CDHO teams are currently probing whether the three owners even have valid medical certificate and licence to start a hospital following which a criminal case would be registered, if needed.

Pandesara police inspector Gadhvi said, “We are waiting for the report of CDHO teams and will later decide our future course of action.”

Surat CDHO Dr Anil Patel said, “We have sent our teams to the hospital to carry out a probe. The hospital authorities had not applied to our office for registration. Before starting such a hospital, they should at least inform us. Our teams will check whether the certificates of these doctors are genuine or not. Our team will also check if they possess a bio-medical waste certificate. Besides, it will also check whether the nursing staff are qualified or not as per Gujarat Nursing Council or Gujarat Medical Council norms. Our teams will prepare a report after which we will decide our future course of action.”

JCP Vatsa said, “I attended the event as they had come and extended an invitation to me. They had taken my permission before putting my name on the invitation card. I attended the event for just 10 minutes. I had to return and attend to some other prior appointments. I was unaware of the criminal cases on the three doctors.”

Commissioner Gahlaut said, “I did not attend the inaugural event. They had put my name (on the invite) without my consent. The hospital has now been sealed by fire department officials. We have directed Pandesara police to take legal action and register a case.”