46 Sion doctors take ill after consuming tricolour barfis

According to Dr Smita Gaikwad, an anesthesiologist and lecturer who was called to treat the doctors, a separate ward was created for the ailing doctors in the hospital. “While nobody is critical, several have complained of severe abdominal pain. Dehydration is another common symptom that we have noticed in everyone. They have been administered antibiotics and a few have been put on IV drips. The illness could also be a result of allergy to the artificial colour added to the sweets. However, the doctors are doing well and a few of them have also been discharged,” said Dr Gaikwad.

According to a resident doctor who did not consume the sweet, the canteen has been serving poor quality food for a long time. “The canteen serves whatever it likes. Doctors have complained about the food on several occasions,” the RMO said.

The canteen, which is maintained by Annapurna catering services, purchased mawa to prepare the sweets from a store called Om Shiva, located in Gandhi Market in King’s Circle, the police said.

Sion Hospital Dean, Dr. Avinash Supe, however, said, “We had awarded a contract to a private supplier. Usually the quality of food is good, but this time there was something wrong with only the sweets.”

While a committee set up by the hospital monitors the food quality, on this instance, Dr. Supe admitted, the dieticians did not check the sweets.
While the Sion police station has not yet registered a complaint, it has begun recording statements of the ailing doctors and collected samples of the sweet for examination.

“Many hospital employees had the sweet. So we are probing why only the RMOs fell ill. Once the samples are tested and returned to us, we will act against the canteen management and the store where the ingredients were purchased,” said Babaurao Gavit, senior inspector, Sion police station.