Appalled at the callous attitude of MGM Hospital, Jamshedpur, the Jharkhand High Court took suo motu cognisance of an e-mail sent by an Advocate, complaining about the negligent attitude adopted by the Hospital in treating a burn patient.
The email complained about “the negligent attitude adopted by the MGM Hospital, Jamshedpur as it is alleged that she was left half-naked and without any proper medical facilities.”
A Bench comprising Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad noted that the email had a “disturbing revelation that a lady, who is a resident of Jamshedpur, was perhaps subjected to torture and was put on fire as a result of which she got more than 90% burn injury. Some unknown person brought her to the door of the management of MGM Hospital and then he disappeared.”
When the matter was taken up on February 18, the court was informed that the woman succumbed to her injuries. Mr. Anup Agarwal, the Advocate who sent the email, had further apprised the court that the victim was not even kept in the burn ward but was simply kept on a bed. He also displayed some photographs of the lady and in one photograph, the court observed that she was sitting on the floor besides the bed.
Agarwal argued that since she was not immediately shifted to the burn unit, she died. The Additional Advocate General submitted before the court that the woman was kept in the Emergency ward since the burn ward of MGM hospital had the capacity of 20 beds and at the time of the incident, it already had 24 patients.
To this, the Bench reportedly said, “The aforesaid sort of explanation, apart from being amazing, requires to be rejected at the outset. It also shows that the MGM authorities do not have any element of compassion. They are not able to take a decision as to who should be treated first in certain circumstances and they are utilizing dilly-dallying tactics in the treatment. However, this is our prima facie observation as we are not at all satisfied with the information given by the MGM Hospital to the learned Addl. Advocate General”.
The High Court also remarked that this untoward and unfortunate incident has given rise to several questions regarding the attitude of the management of the Hospital, the facilities which are to be provided either by the State or by any competent authority to such Hospitals. The Bench added, “… it also shows lack of training to the concerned doctors and staff in dealing with the situation as in no case a lady with 90% burn injury can be kept like that which is revealed from the photographs sent by Mr. Agarwal”.
The Bench said that the State needs to answer an important question pertaining to informing the Police about a 90% burn injury and whether “immediately” the police lodged the First Information Report.
The court directed the Member Secretary, JHALSA (Jharkhand State Legal Services Authority) to make an enquiry in this matter and submit a report to it within a period of one week. It also asked the State to file a counter affidavit answering the issues.
The Bench also directed the Hospital Management and the State Authorities to fully cooperate with the Member Secretary, JHALSA during the inquiry and the entire expenditure would have to be incurred by the State Authority.
The order may be read here:
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