Bhandup maternity hospital deaths: HC seeks BMC’s response on actions taken

The HC was hearing a plea related to investigation into the deaths of a 26-year-old woman and her newborn at the Sushma Swaraj Maternity Home in Bhandup West in April. Plea was filed by the deceased woman’s husband, Khusruddin Ansari who alleged negligence and misconduct by the civic hospitals.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj K Chavan also recorded the statement by the state government lawyer that a four-member panel constituted by JJ Hospital, tasked with investigating the negligence allegations, will take a decision and file its report within two weeks.

Ansari had alleged negligence, citing the failure to provide medical records of the deceased within 72 hours of request. He also claimed that the maternity home lacked electricity, adequate staff and beds. The petitioner, through senior advocate Gayatri Singh, claimed that power failure happened several times during the date of incident.

“Isn’t it so that once there is a power failure, the generator should immediately start? This (incident) could have been avoided. The doctor concerned conducted delivery using a mobile torch. Generator didn’t start and why has it failed,” the court asked BMC and sought its affidavit within a week. Further hearing was posted to October 9.