Committee inquiring medical negligence fails to fix responsibility

The inquiry called to investigate the causes that led to the death of an infant in Govt. Lalla Ded Hospital due to medical negligence on May 25, is proving out to be a mere eye wash as the authorities are ‘deliberately delaying’ the investigation process.

A five member committee that was formed on May 26 was tasked to look into the causes that led to the death of an infant. The committee was asked to submit its report within two days; however, it failed to do so.

The committee took two weeks to submit its interim report with just only giving the details about what happened when, and has failed to fix the responsibility, as it was ordered to do so.

According to sources, the report has not fixed any responsibility, but has only provided the details about what happened when and nothing more.

Disinterest in taking the investigation to its logical end can be understood from the fact that the committee submitted its report in one of its grave medical negligence after more than two weeks and that too without fixing responsibilities, added the source.

While talking to Kashmir Vision, Principal Govt Medical College (GMC) Dr Samia Rashid said that the committee has submitted its report; however, she refused to divulge details about the content of the report. As of now, given the pace at which the investigation is going on, there seems no soon action to be taken in the case.

As per the sources, authorities are not in mood to take any action based on the report that was submitted by the committee; however, the authorities may form disciplinary committee that will be ultimately tasked to take action against those responsible, which is reportedly going to take more time.

The speedy justice in this case of negligence that was promised when the inquiry committee was constituted, is getting delayed with every passing day, with authorities seemingly not taking the negligence case seriously.

Rouf Ahmad, father of the infant, is struggling to have a copy of the report, as he is legally entitled to have it before it is actually made public. “I have been doing rounds of GMC, but I am yet to have glimpse of that report,” he said.

Notably, the report that was supposed to be on the table in just two days is yet to be made public even after passing of more than two weeks, he added.

Pertinently, patient namely Asifa, was shifted to SMHS on May 25, apparently, for apparently no reason, and while returning back to Lalla Ded hospital, the ambulance driver had resorted to rash driving that led to the death of Arifa’s infant. In this case, Principal and Dean, GMC, had constituted a five member committee to look into the matter and fix responsibilities. 

Guest