Amethi hospital employees end stir after HC stay on UP govt order suspending licence

Employees of the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital here ended their nine-day dharna on Thursday, a day after the Allahabad High Court put on hold the Uttar Pradesh government's order suspending the facility's licence.

The hospital, however, is yet to resume medical services as the administration has not received a copy of the high court's order, hospital officials said.

Hospital Chief Executive Officer, Awadhesh Sharma said the dharna of employees has ended but medical services are yet to resume.

'As soon as we get the court order copy, we will hand it over to the Chief Medical Officer (CEO) and start medical services,' he said.

A division bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manish Kumar had on Wednesday said inquiry against the hospital would go on, and asked the state government to file its counter affidavit while granting stay on the suspension of the licence.

The court passed the order on a writ petition filed by Sharma against the government's order.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel J N Mathur argued that the suspension order was not sustainable as it was passed 'due to political reasons'.

The state government contended that the hospital had no licence to conduct surgeries but it was doing so.

On September 17, the health department suspended the licence of the hospital in Munshiganj area of Amethi and halted OPD and emergency services, a day after the death of a woman patient following an operation.

The hospital is run by the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust headed by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.

On September 26, over 400 employees of the hospital started a dharna against the suspension of its licence.

A political controversy erupted over the issue after local Congress leaders also staged a protest outside the CMO's office.

Union Minister and MP from Amethi, Smriti Irani, had attacked the Congress over the suspension of hospital's licence, saying instead of supporting the deceased woman's family, the party was 'crying over loss of its profits'.

The woman patient, who was admitted to the hospital on September 14, slipped into a coma during a surgery. Her family members alleged that she was kept at the hospital for more than 30 hours before being referred to Lucknow where she died on September 16.

On September 17, an FIR of causing death by negligence was registered against four employees of the hospital, including its chief executive officer.