Plaint against GTB, pvt clinic for ‘refusing’ MRI to a riot victim

NEW DELHI: A doctor from Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital has registered a complaint with the Delhi Medical Council against a private diagnostic centre as well as the hospital after a 15-year-old riot victim was refused an MRI.

The victim had suffered a gunshot injury to the spine. An MRI report was needed for the accurate planning of the surgery.

GTB Hospital is the biggest govt-run tertiary care hospital in the trans-yamuna region and treated 300 people injured in the riots, as many as 67 with gunshot wounds. The hospital does not have an in-house MRI machine.

For the first two days when the riot victims came to the hospital, its CT scan machine was also not working and the patients were being referred to the nearby Rajiv Gandhi Superspeciality hospital.

“MRI is an essential tool when treating trauma cases as it helps in analysing the internal injuries. It is important especially in cases of gunshot wounds where the bullet has passed through. It reduces the wait time for patients and helps doctors in planning the treatment course quickly. The problem is that such a big tertiary care hospital in Delhi does not have an MRI machine,” said Dr Satendra Singh, physiologist at GTB Hospital and the complainant in the case. He is also an member of Delhi Medical Council.

The hospital also runs an MD radio-diagnosis course without an MRI machine.” requests have been raised repeatedly by hospital authorities ...but it is still not here,” he said.

The person was also not able to avail the benefit of the Delhi government scheme of free diagnostics as they did not have any residence proof on them, according to a volunteer doctor who accompanied the patient.

“The hospital should have an MRI machine and we can send our recommendation or refer the case to the appropriate authority – the Delhi government. We cannot take action against a hospital,” said Dr Girish Tyagi, registrar of Delhi Medical Council.

The complaint mentions the private diagnostic centre — House of Diagnostics in Karkardooma where the patient was taken — stated two reasons for the refusal – it was a medico-legal case , and the person who refused the MRI had signed off as a doctor when she was a physiotherapist.

The diagnostic centre said that they were following the protocol.

“For a medico-legal case, request comes to us only from head of hospital, court or the police. In an emergency, we insist on a doctor accompanying the patient. We are a standalone diagnostic centre and in case something were to happen to the patient we are not equipped to handle it. It was a gunshot wound and in such cases, it might get dislodged and cause more harm. We did not know whether the bullet was inside the victim,” said Priyank Tyagi, group medical director, House of Diagnostics.

“I am entitled to write Dr (PT). I am a trained physiotherapist. However, the patients had created a very tense atmosphere so I had to sign in a hurry, which is why the (PT) is missing,” said Swati Sinha, who is the quality manager at the centre and had refused the MRI. “This part of the complaint we can investigate and take appropriate action,” said Tyagi, referring to the signature.

Despite several attempts GTB Hospital could not be reached for a comment on the issue.