OBSERVING THAT deputing unqualified medical officers in hospitals have serious repercussions on the society and faith on the public health system, a sessions court recently rejected the bail application of three persons arrested in June by the Mumbai police. In June, a probe was initiated by Mulund police station on directions of magistrate court on charges, including murder, forgery and other sections of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act, based on the complaint of a man whose brother died allegedly due to ill-treatment at a hospital in the city. The hospital informed the complainant that doctors were provided by Jeevan Jyot Charitable Trust, hired by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to provide manpower to Intensive Care Units (ICUs). The complaint said that persons without MBBS degrees were deputed at the ICUs “without proper authority” and that because of this, many lost their lives. Police claimed that documents of qualified medical officers were collected but those without MBBS degrees were deputed and they had certified deaths of patients without qualification. “A person admitted in an ICU is generally on borderline of life and death and a small push could result the patient not surviving. The causes of death can be many and it would be certainly a task, which will be requiring evidence. In such circumstance, considering large number of deaths,more so those certified by these dummies or accused and knowingly involvement in this scam, I am not inclined to grant bail to any of the accused,” Principal Judge A Subramaniam said in his order passed on November 10 and was made available on Monday. The complainant said that there were 149 deaths between the relevant period from 2018 to 2020 but claimed that some of these deaths were not verified by qualified doctors. The court rejected the bail pleas of doctors Chandrashekar Yadav and Sushant Jadhav, and Surekha Chavan, a qualified nurse. Their pleas said that there was no evidence to show that the deaths were caused due to them and that the deaths were not homicidal. The pleas also said that the doctors were duly verified by the competent authorities of the BMC regarding their qualification. The court said that the Trust was to send doctors to BMC-run hospitals, which are usually visited by the poor and needy and it is uncommon for them to question the findings of medical officers as they trust them. “Admittedly, as per the tender conditions, the BMC had laid down basic criteria for such qualifications and that is an important aspect. Not only were these persons to be qualified but their qualifications were to be verified by two senior most medical officers working in hospital and BMC and then only they could work in the ICU,” the court said.
