Max hospital row: Panel submits report to Delhi govt, finds doctors guilty of not following prescribed norms

A three-member doctor panel submitted the preliminary report in Shalimar Bagh Max Super Specialty Hospital medical negligence issue to Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain. The report said the hospital was found guilty of not having followed prescribed medical norms. The doctors had not done ECG tracings before writing the death certificate, India Today reported.

In a shocking incident, premature twins were allegedly declared dead by an upscale private hospital and handed in a polythene bag to their parents who realised that one of them was alive only when they were on way to perform the last rites.

Representational image. News18

On Sunday, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said there should be a legal framework to check "open loot" and "criminal negligence" by private hospitals, in the wake of the premature baby being wrongly declared dead by a city-based private hospital. He, however, added that the Delhi government valued the independence of private medical facilities and did not wish to interfere in their functioning.

After the hospital's negligence became evident, the Delhi-based hospital terminated the services of two doctors involved in the declaration of a 22-week-old premature baby as dead while he was alive. "While the inquiry by the expert group which includes external experts from IMA is still in process, we have decided to terminate the services of the two treating doctors, Dr AP Mehta and Dr Vishal Gupta in the case relating to the twin extreme pre-term babies," the hospital had said in a statement.

On Saturday, Jain had said that strict action would be taken against the hospital and if required its licence would be cancelled. He said the government ordered an inquiry on Friday when it came to know about the alleged negligence of the hospital.

Jain said a show-cause notice was served to the hospital on 22 November for not treating poor patients.

With inputs from agencies