The district administration of Unnao in Uttar Pradesh suspended its chief medical officer (CMO) on Tuesday, 26 December, after reports surfaced that 32 cataract patients were operated upon in torchlight for want of steady electricity supply at Nawabganj’s community health centre (CHC).
On Wednesday, 27 December, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) took suo motu cognisance of the incident and issued a notice to the UP government.
Taking a serious note of the matter, the Uttar Pradesh government acted promptly and suspended CMO Rajendra Prasad.Sidharth Nath Singh, Health Minister, to PTI
He said the in-charge of the community health centre (CHC) at Nawabganj, Devesh Das, has also been removed for dereliction of duty.
A report has been sought by the state health department regarding the entire episode.
Patients Also Made to Sit Down on Floors Despite Cold Weather
According to the shocking visuals that went viral on social media, 32 cataract operations were done at the CHC in Nawabganj on Monday in torch light as there was no electricity or power backup there.
According to IANS, there were 50 such eye-operations conducted by a non-governmental organisation, and the photographs that appeared in some sections of the media showed the surgeries being conducted on the floor of the hospital and under the light of a torch.
On Tuesday, a probe was ordered by the state government and was conducted by Joint Director (Health) Avdhesh Yadav and Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Manish Bansal.
The probe team spoke to the patients on whom the surgical procedure was conducted and when they testified about the lapses, a report was submitted to the state government and action was taken immediately, an official said.
The team also found that the operation theatre was "unhygienic" and "not up to the standards for surgeries". Permission for conducting the eye operations had also not been procured from the authorities.
When the electricity went off on Wednesday, the CHC in-charge refused permission to switch on the generator and directed that the surgeries be conducted in the dark, with the aid of a torch.
Some relatives of the patients complained that they were not provided with any beds after the procedure, and that they were made to lie down on floors despite extreme cold weather conditions.
The CMO had earlier said the acting district magistrate had ordered a probe into the matter and the organisation entrusted with the task could be blacklisted, if found guilty.
Uttar Pradesh has attracted bad press for a series of 'medical disasters' in the recent past, with the death of more than 60 children, mostly infants, at a government hospital in Gorakhpur being the latest case in point.
A hospital in Farukhabad recorded 49 deaths, 30 in neo-natal ICU and 19 during delivery, between 20 July and 21 August this year, reportedly due to a lack of oxygen supply.
(With inputs from PTI, IANS and ANI)
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