Charnock Hospital asked to pay compensation of Rs five lakh

KOLKATA: In an interim order, the West Bengal Clinical Establishments Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) asked Charnock Hospital to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the husband of a 29-year-old woman, who died due to medical negligence.

The victim, Kalyani Sharma, a resident of Dum Dum airport area, had some issues relating to pregnancy and therefore she had consulted a doctor from the Charnock Hospital. The doctor told her that a surgery had to be conducted.

The woman was admitted to the hospital on October 5 and a surgery was conducted the next day. The victim's husband Krishnan Sharma told the Commission that the patient had suffered a number of complications ever since the surgery was conducted.

The patient complained of kidney issues and underwent dialysis. The patient was finally shifted from Charnock on October 18 to another private hospital, where she died the next day.

The WBCERC apprehended that there might be some issues with the surgery as the complications occurred after the surgery.

The Commission also pointed out that a patient cannot die within a day after being shifted to the other hospital, if the previous hospital had properly treated her. The Commission also wanted to know from the private hospital as to why they transferred the patient when her condition was critical. The hospital authorities failed to give any satisfactory answers.

"The case was referred to the medical council for its observation. We will deliver our final judgment after receiving the recommendations from the medical council. But, we have passed an interim order where the private hospital has been directed to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the patient's family as the hospital cannot shrug its responsibility. There was some negligence on the part of the hospital as well," WBCERC Chairperson justice (retired) Ashim Kumar Banerjee said.

In another order, the WBCERC directed AMRI Hospital Dhakuria to refund around Rs 60,000 to the family members of Anita Banerjee (73).

The hospital had charged the patient Rs 2.40 lakh which the Commission found exorbitant. Patient's daughter told the Commission that she was kept in the ICU for 5 days unnecessarily. In a similar incident, RSV Hospital in Tollygunge has been asked to refund Rs 82,000 to the family members of Sishir Kumar Munshi (86), who was charged Rs 3.82 lakh.

Apollo Diagnostic has been directed by the Commission to investigate the role of its franchise into an incident in which a woman patient's wound was inflicted upon while extracting blood.

The victim, Souma Bajaj, a resident of Salt Lake, went to the diagnostic center for a blood test on December 3 last year when the incident happened.