Stronger SOPs, police chowki soon: Porsche crash case triggered series of reforms at Pune’s Sassoon Hospital

Today, the hospital is in “action” mode, says the dean, Dr Eknath Pawar, who will complete a year at the post next month. He points to a recent incident in which three senior resident doctors at the hospital’s orthopaedic department were promptly suspended for ragging four junior doctors.

“We will not tolerate any misdemeanour or malpractice and will ensure accountability from all. We have tightened our security system and brought in increased transparency. You will not find incidents of bogus certificates being issued on the campus like before. We try to ensure that prisoners brought to the hospital are discharged at the earliest, unless their medical condition warrants a longer stay. All this has yielded results — for one, patients are showing greater confidence in the hospital and the flow at the outpatient department (OPD) has increased,” Dr Pawar said.

The facility was previously rocked by various controversies, ranging from alleged malpractices in kidney transplants to an incident in which a patient in the ICU suffered a rat bite, and the escape of drug racketeer Lalit Patil.

Once the Porsche case unfolded, the authorities decided it was time for a ‘cleanup’ at the hospital. It will soon be a year since Dr Ajay Taware, former head of the hospital’s forensic department, and Dr Srihari Halnor, former casualty medical officer, were arrested in the wake of the Porsche crash case alongside mortuary staffer Atul Ghatkambale for their roles in manipulating the blood samples taken from the minor driver and his friends. Recently, the Maharashtra Medical Council suspended the doctors’ medical licenses pending inquiry.

Police chowki on campus

Dr Pawar said a police chowki will be set up on the hospital campus in a few days. “This has been a long-pending demand. There have been attacks on doctors by relatives of patients in the past. All the arrangements for the chowki are now in place, only the inauguration is awaited,” Dr Pawar said.

The hospital dean said that over the years there have been several discussions and efforts to set up a dedicated police chowki within the hospital campus, especially considering the high volume of patients. The chowki will be near the casualty section.

The state’s largest hospital with more than 1,290 beds is a tertiary care facility and admits patients not only from the city but across various districts in western Maharashtra. While Sassoon Hospital has a prisoners’ ward to treat inmates from local jails, authorities said there was a need to pursue setting up similar ones at other government-run facilities like the district hospital at Aundh.

“The hospital gets around 600-800 medico-legal cases each month, including those of rape, poisoning, assault, underage pregnancies and burns. A police chowki on the campus will be of great help in this regard,” medical superintendent Dr Yellappa Jadhav added.

Dr Jadhav said the standard operating procedures (SOPs) in the hospital have also been strengthened, resulting in timely reporting and effective handling of medico-legal cases. “We have also taken measures so that medical officers in the casualty ward are brought in by rotation to ensure transparency,” he said, adding that surprise checks are conducted in different wards.

The dean too said that measures have been taken to ensure that CCTV cameras are in working condition, “We need to install more cameras in the hostels and corridors to attain 100 per cent coverage,” he stated.