“We will not interfere in the day to day functioning of any private hospital, but they cannot play with the lives of the patients. We will not tolerate criminal negligence,” Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain on Saturday dubbed Shalimar Bagh’s Max Hospital as ‘habitual offender’.
Jain’s comment comes a day after the hospital’s license was cancelled as it falsely declared a newborn dead and gave it away to the parents in a packet.
Speaking to ANI, Jain said “Max Hospital Shalimar Bagh has become a habitual offender, we had no option but to cancel their license”.
“Mistakes have happened but nothing of this sort. There have been several other complaints against Max hospital but this was the most outrageous one, we cannot tolerate open loot and criminal negligence,” he said.
Jain further added that his government took the decision after proper consideration.
Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, lost its license to operate with immediate effect on Friday. The Delhi government came down heavily on the hospital where a premature baby was wrongly declared dead last week. The baby died on Thursday at a nursing home in Pitampura after battling for life for nearly a week.
A panel formed by the Delhi government to look into the case found the hospital administration guilty of not following prescribed medical norms in dealing with new-born infants. Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain told Mail Today, “Delhi government has cancelled the licence of Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, over medical negligence in the case. The medical fault which happened at the Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh is a criminal medical negligence and it is not acceptable at all.”
Creating deterrence for other private healthcare facilities, Jain said: “If in the future, cases of medical laxity come up at any private hospitals, none of them would be spared. Stringent action will be taken against them.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Mail Today had reported that the three-member doctors’ panel in its preliminary report had found Max Shalimar Bagh guilty for not having followed prescribed medical norms in dealing with new-born infants. “No ECG tracings done to trace whether the child was alive. Body handed over without written instructions. Dead and alive infants were not kept separately,” it said.
Meanwhile, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: “Open loot or criminal negligence by any hospital will not be tolerated.” The family of the dead babies thanked Delhi government. “We are thankful to Delhi chief minister and health minister for taking the strongest action against Max healthcare,” Deepak Bidawat, uncle of the deceased twins told Mail Today. They asked the government to arrest the doctors responsible for the botch-up. Jain said this is not the first time that Max Hospital is under the scanner.
“Max is a habitual offender. Three notices had been issued to the hospital over lapses involving the EWS (extremely weaker section) quota patients and additional beds. It has been found guilty in those cases, too. The action taken on it is in continuation of previous notices,” Jain said.
The final action initiated against Max, Shalimar Bagh, leading to the cancellation of its license, was on the basis of the three cases of oversight involving the twins’ case, EWS services and fever beds. The Delhi government has now ordered Max Healthcare to not register any new patients.
“Max Hospital (Shalimar) continues to treat admitted patients, but they cannot take new case now. I have directed the hospital to tell admitted patients they can shift, or they can continue their treatment at the hospital,” Jain said. The government has directed the Delhi Medical Council (DMC) and the Medical Council of India to take action against accused doctors.
“It is for the first time a ‘bold step’ like cancelling the license of any big corporate hospital has been taken. Had it been a small nursing home or a private clinic, things would not have been same. Max Shalimar’s license cancellation will be deterrent for other private hospital,” DMC registrar Dr Girish Tyagi said. Max Hospital authorities issued a statement after the license cancellation order was issued.
“We have received notice of cancellation of the licence of Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh. We strongly believe that this ruling is harsh and that we have not been given an adequate opportunity to be heard,” the statement said.
