‘Everyday fateful for poor patients till super specialty hospital in Sambhajinagar non-functional’: HC after recent patients’ deaths

The HC said if the Super Specialty Hospital remains non-functional, “every passing day would turn out to be fateful for poor patients”. The HC also asked the Dean of the 60-year-old government hospital to submit its structural audit along with the cost of maintenance of the building for the last three years so as to assess whether the time has come to construct a new building.

A division bench of Justice Ravindra V Ghuge and Justice Y G Khobragade on October 10 heard a PIL moved by AIMIM MP Syed Imtiaz Jaleel, seeking to fill up vacant posts of doctors in government hospitals along with other facilities.

In April this year, the bench had given an ultimatum to Maharashtra government to fill up “huge vacancies” of professors, doctors and other medical, nursing or teaching staff at government medical colleges and hospitals across the state by October 31.

On Tuesday, the bench was informed by a government lawyer that the position of Chief Medical Officer at GMCH is likely to be filled up very soon as interviews and selection process will be concluded by the end of October.

Additional Government Pleader S G Karlekar submitted that the hospital is overcrowded due to higher admission than actual bed strength and relatives of patients are also in the hospital premises and litter is spread even on account of consumption of food items, drinking water bottles among others.

Jaleel pointed that the Super Specialty Hospital has been built to cater to medical needs of poor people in the region and around Rs 120 crore was spent on building it and another Rs 30 crore on medical equipment having ‘state of art’ catheterization laboratory with ‘ultra modern’ facilities. Jaleel sought the said hospital to be made functional. He submitted that only reason the cath lab is not functional was due to shortage of nurses in GMCH.

“It is beyond debate that every passing day would turn out to be a fateful day for a poor patient. As long as the Super Specialty Hospital is nonfunctional, it would amount to deprivation of medical facilities and assistance of the order for which the provision is available in the said hospital,” the bench noted.

Considering the ’emergent need’ so as to put the hospital to ‘optimum use,’ the bench directed the Dean of GMCH present in the court to select seniormost nurses and ensure nine nurses are deployed in the said facility to commence angioplasty services at the earliest.

The court also passed orders including availability of sufficient functional lifts to help pregnant patients approaching GMCH who get treated at the maternity ward on the first floor.

Along with structural audit report of the GMCH building, the bench also sought report on present status of refrigerators to store medicines and condition of ambulances by next hearing on November 6.