Five of the worst hospital tragedies in India

While the tragedy in Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital in Nanded is taking a political turn, here are five of the worst hospital tragedies that have scarred the healthcare system of India:

The deaths of 31 patients in 48-hours at a government hospital at Nanded in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra have raised serious questions on the healthcare system of India. The incident was reported from the Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital in Nanded, one of the important towns of Marathwada.

The Nanded hospital deaths come close on the heels of the August 2023 Thane incident when 18 people died in a span of 24 hours at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital (CSHM) at Kalwa.

While the tragedy in Maharashtra is taking a political turn, here are five of the worst hospital tragedies that have scarred the healthcare system of India:

Gorakhpur hospital tragedy

At least 60 children died in six days in Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital in Gorakhpur due to an alleged oxygen supply disruption in 2017. Dr Kafeel Khan, who was suspended on charges of laxity and later booked, revealed that he had informed all senior officials including district magistrate and chief medical officer of Gorakhpur and the health ministry and ‘’begged’’ for oxygen cylinders on the night of August 10. Dr Khan got arrested in the same year.

After spending nine months in jail, Dr Khan was given a clean chit. However, in 2021, Kafeel was dismissed from his services by the state government. Khan later took to Twitter and posted a message confirming that his services had been terminated by the state government.

Chhattisgarh sterilisation campaign

At least 10 women died and around 15 were left in serious condition after a government-run mass sterilisation campaign went wrong in Chhattisgarh in November 2014. Two days after surgery at what was called the ‘family-planning’ centre, several women experienced illness. “It was a serious matter of negligence. It was unfortunate,” the then chief minister of the state, Raman Singh, had told reporters, as per a report in The Indian Express.

Erwadi mental asylum tragedy

On August 6, 2001, a fire broke out in Moideen Badusha Mental Home in Tamil Nadu’s Erwadi engulfing 43 chained individuals and killing at least 25. The patients in the mental home used to be chained in iron shackles at all times. After the incident, all 500 inmates were released from the centre and placed under government care and the mental health asylum was shut. 

Kolkata hospital tragedy

In December of 2011, 90 people including three staffers died after fire broke out in AMRI hospital of Kolkata. There were 160 people inside the hospital when the tragedy unfolded. According to fire brigade officers, the fire broke out around 3.30 am in the hospital buildi­ng’s basement which was me­ant for parking vehicles but was used as a storehouse. “The storehouse was full of combustible elements, so the fire spread rapidly,” the then West Bengal Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim had said. According to a report in The Indian Express, a probe carried out by SIT revealed negligence on the part of the hospital authority.

Bhubaneshwar hospital fire 

At least 22 patients were killed and several were injured in a fire that broke out at the Sum Hospital on October 18, 2016 in Odisha. The blaze was suspected to have been triggered by an electric short circuit in the dialysis ward on the first floor of the private hospital which spread to the nearby Intensive Care Unit.