Fortis Hospital gets show-cause notice

Seema Rai, an end-stage renal failure patient, was admitted to the hospital last year for transplant. However, the hospital conducted a pancreas transplant too, as the doctors said she required both kidney and pancreas transplants.

The show-cause notice comes after contrary decisions made by the Karnataka Medical Council (KMC) and the Lokayukta.

While the KMC gave a decision in favour of the hospital on June 2 stating that the hospital’s licence for a liver transplant also included pancreas, the Lokayukta report, which came a few days before the KMC decision, concluded that the hospital did not have the appropriate licence for transplanting pancreas.

The notice issued by the Health Department states that the hospital has permission to conduct kidney and liver transplants only.

However, along with kidney, the hospital also performed pancreas transplant without the consent of the patient.

It was also mentioned that the intensive care unit (ICU), where Rai was kept, was not sterile leading to her developing post-operative bleeding and septic shock.

Under these circumstances, the department asked why the hospital’s licence should not be cancelled.

The hospital has been asked to respond to the notice, failing which legal action would be initiated against it.

Confirming that the notice had been sent to the hospital, Health Commissioner S Selvakumar merely said that he was awaiting the hospital’s reply.

The hospital authorities said they had received the notice from the Health Department seeking clarification on issues raised by Pankaj Rai, the patient’s husband.

“We are preparing an appropriate response,” said hospital vice president P Davison, while stressing that the hospital has a licence to perform multi-organ transplant given by the Appropriate Authority.