5 doctors summoned by Delhi court for negligence

A Delhi court has summoned five doctors for their alleged negligence which led to the death of a 10-month-old baby here in 2012.

The court noted that the Medical Council of India (MCI) has also ordered removal of their names from its register for three months.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Anuj Agrawal summoned four doctors of two different private hospitals and the medical superintendent of one of the hospitals under Section 304 (culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code.

The court issued summons based on a complaint filed by the toddler's mother Renu Tyagi, who had alleged that her child died due to the negligence of the doctors.

She claimed that the doctors charged her a hefty amount for the treatment but did not perform their duties diligently.

Based on its findings, the MCI ethics committee had held guilty doctors Om Prakash and Rakesh Tyagi of Jain Charitable Trust Hospital in Gandhi Nagar and the medical superintendent of Taneja Hospital in Preet Vihar.

Though the committee was silent on the conduct of doctors Rakesh Kumar Jain and Shefali Chauhan of Taneja hospital, it had directed removal of their names from MCI register, which alluded to the fact that their professional conduct was not appropriate as per medical protocol, the court said in its order.

It also pulled up police officials probing the case for not taking into consideration the ethics committee report, which had clearly directed that names of the guilty doctors be removed from its register for a period of three months.

The magistrate said he was "pained" by the attitude of police officials for remaining in a state of "slumber".

"I am in pain to observe that despite loss of a precious human life, the then concerned officer remained in a state of inertia for the reasons best known to him and chose to sit over the said report of the ethics committee," he said.

The court also directed that the matter be brought to the notice of the deputy commissioner of police, east district, asking him fix responsibility of the erring officials and taking appropriate remedial action.

According to the complaint filed by the toddler's mother, her child was admitted to Jain Charitable Hospital on November 28, 2012. However, the hospital administration later asked her to shift his son to Taneja Hospital as it could not give him proper treatment.

The baby was admitted to Taneja Hospital the next day, where during the course of treatment, the child's health started deteriorating, the complainant said, adding that the hospital charged her Rs 3.5 lakh.

During the course of treatment, when Renu Tyagi went in the ICU, she was shocked to see that ants were running over her child's face, the complaint stated.

When she confronted the doctors about it, she was told that "our job is to treat and not to remove ants", it added.

In her complaint, Renu Tyagi alleged that the doctors always asked her to deposit money and did not perform their duties diligently due to which she shifted her child to another hospital, where he died during the course of treatment.