LLRM Medical College penalises seven staff

THE HOSPITAL STAFF HAD DECLARED THAT THE PATIENT HAD GONE MISSING . BUT A PROBE COMMITTEE FOUND THAT THE PATIENT, HAD DIED A DAY AFTER HIS ADMISSION TO THE WARD ON APRIL 21.

MEERUT : The LLRM Medical College in Meerut initiated action against seven staff, including three doctors, on Thursday in a case of gross negligence towards an elderly Covid patient here.

The hospital staff had declared that the patient had gone missing from the Covid ward. But a committee formed to investigate the matter found that the patient, Santosh Kumar, 64, had died a day after his admission to the ward on April 21.

Another patient with a similar name was also undergoing treatment in the Covid ward and the staff kept updating Kumar’s daughter, Shivangi, about his health status while her father was cremated as an unidentified body.

Taking cognizance of the incident during a hearing last week, the high court had directed the state government to take stern action against those responsible.

It also directed the government to compensate the dependents who suffered irreparable loss due to such carelessness. Seventeen days after the incident, the college management finally initiated action against seven staff. Principal of the medical college Dr Gyanendra Kumar said Dr Sudhir Rathi had been relieved of the charge of the Covid ward and had also been removed as the head of department of the surgery ward.

Services of Dr Utkarsh Kaushik, a contractual doctor in the ward and also associate professor in the skin department, were terminated while recommendation for suspension of Dr Anshu Singh was sent to the state government.

The matron of the Covid ward was attached to the principal’s office and salaries of three other health staff members had been stopped till further orders.

Dr Kumar initiated action on the basis of the report of a three-member committee formed to investigate the incident and identify those who failed to discharge their duties with utmost responsibility.

The patient, Santosh Kumar, 64, of Ghaziabad was admitted to the LLRM Medical College’s Covid ward on April 21. His daughter, Shivangi, used to take updates about her father’s health through telephone. She was updated till May 3 morning. But when she called in the evening to enquire about her father’s health, the staff said no patient of this name was in the ward.

When Shivangi approached officials in the college, she was taken to the Covid and other wards to look for her father, but in vain.

A committee was formed to investigate the matter and it was found that Kumar had died a day after his admission to the ward on April 21.