Bombay High Court forms committee to examine surge in patient deaths at two state-run hospitals

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday termed as "serious" two instances of sudden increase in deaths at government-run hospitals in Maharashtra's Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar districts in 2023, and formed an experts' committee to examine the issue.

A division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice M S Karnik said the committee shall suggest measures so that such incidents do not occur again.

The court was hearing a bunch of petitions, including one initiated suo motu (on its own), raising concerns over the high number of deaths at the government hospitals in Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar districts in 2023.

As many as 31 patients including 16 infants died in a span of few days at the Nanded government medical college and hospital in October 2023.

At the Government Medical College and Hospital at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, 18 patients including infants died between October 2 and 3, 2023.

The government had told the court earlier that there did not seem to be any gross negligence on the part of the hospitals as they were burdened with a heavy inflow of extremely critical patients from private hospitals and smaller clinics.

On Thursday, the bench said it would be better if a team of medical experts studied the reasons.

"The issue is serious. We do not want it to reoccur. Hence, certain short-term and long-term measures need to be taken," the court said.

The HC set up a committee which includes the secretary of the public health department, directors of the health sciences and medical education department, deans of the state-run J J hospital in Mumbai and the medical college and hospitals at Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar districts.

"We request the committee to visit the two hospitals...and submit a report on the infrastructure and medical facilities," the court said.

The committee shall submit a report in two months suggesting short-term and long-term measures that could be taken to ensure that such incidents do not take place in future, the court said, posting the matter for further hearing on June 16.