Amethi's Sanjay Gandhi Hospital resumes operation

After the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday stayed the Uttar Pradesh government's order suspending the licence of Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, the protesting employees ended their strike on Thursday.

Amethi (UP):Medical services at the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital here resumed on Friday, 19 days after they were stopped following suspension of the licence after the death of a woman allegedly due to negligence in treatment.

After the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday stayed the Uttar Pradesh government's order suspending the licence of Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, the protesting employees ended their strike on Thursday. However, in absence of the court's order, hospital services could not be started the same day. Sanjay Gandhi Hospital Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Awadhesh Sharma said on Friday that there was a slight delay in starting medical services due to a two-day delay in receiving the copy of the court order. He said the services were resumed this afternoon.

Sharma said a copy of the order has been made available to the officials concerned, including the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Amethi. He said the patients had started coming to hospital since morning but there was a delay in getting the copy of the order due to which the medical procedure could start only in the afternoon. Sharma said the doctors have been asked to run OPD (Out Patient Department) till late Friday evening to ensure that all the patients are examined, tested and treated.

On September 17, a day after the death of patient Divya Shukla (22), resident of Ram Shahpur, Amethi, the Health Department had suspended the licence of Sanjay Gandhi Hospital and stopped OPD and emergency services. The hospital is run by the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust headed by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, of which Rahul Gandhi is also a member.

After this decision of the Health Department, the matter gained momentum in political circles. The hospital management approached the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court after the decision of the Health Department. The court had put an interim stay on the suspension of the hospital's licence while passing the order on Wednesday on a petition filed by the hospital's CEO Sharma against the government's suspension order.

A division bench of the High Court comprising Justice Vivek Chaudhary and Justice Manish Kumar had on Wednesday said the investigation against the hospital would continue and asked the state government to file its counter affidavit while staying the suspension of the licence. Senior advocate J N Mathur, appearing for the petitioner, argued that the order for the hospital's licence was passed "for political reasons".

The state government argued that the hospital had no licence to perform surgeries, yet operations were being conducted there. It was alleged that due to negligence in treatment, Divya Shukla died after minor surgery. More than 400 employees of the hospital had started a protest on September 26 against the suspension of licence.

Troubles for the hospital began on September 14 when Shukla, who was admitted to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, went into coma during a surgery. Her family members alleged that she was kept at Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Amethi for more than 30 hours before being referred to Lucknow. She died on September 16 in Lucknow. A case was registered against four employees including the CEO of the hospital on September 17.