MUMBAI: The Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) has imposed a penalty of Rs 12 lakh on BMC for operating an ECG machine using a sweeper at Pt Madan Mohan Malviya Shatabdi Hospital in Chembur, instead of a trained technician.The BMC team informed the commission that the technician post had been vacant for the past year, compelling them to assign a “trained employee” to operate the ECG machine. However, BMC did not provide details regarding the training received by the “employee”.MSHRC took up the issue after receiving a complaint from a woman who had also included a photograph showing a sweeper performing an ECG on a patient at the hospital.MSHRC chairperson Justice A M Badar directed the BMC commissioner to immediately appoint a trained ECG technician and to pay Rs 12 lakh as compensation for violating human rights and negligence in protecting the rights of numerous patients at the hospital over the past year. The compensation is to be paid to the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority.MSHRC remarked, “Sanitary workers of Shatabdi Hospital, run by BMC, are taking ECG of patients. Considering these grave and serious allegations, it was expected of the municipal commissioner to conduct a fact-finding inquiry personally as the subject matter of the complaint is related to the human life of thousands of patients…. This was not done, indicating apathy of the civil servant in protecting the right to life.“BMC stated that the technician required to operate the ECG had to be a graduate in the science stream. However, BMC failed to provide any evidence of conducting a training programme for the ward boy operating the machine. Furthermore, BMC did not produce any evidence to show that it had advertised for the position of technician to handle ECG machines. The commission expressed concerns that similar situations might persist in other civic hospitals in the city.MSHRC noted in its order, “Hospitals are bound to recruit trained staff for handling sensitive medical equipment which may give wrong results if managed by untrained workers, and such eventuality can cost a patient’s life.”Upon receiving the complaint related to Shatabdi Hospital, the commission had previously directed BMC to conduct a fact-finding inquiry to ascertain the facts. Instead, the chief medical officer submitted an abhipray (opinion) stating that there was no ECG technician and that the work was carried out by a “trained employee”.During the hearing, MSHRC asked the civic officer present to clarify the term “trained employee”. A BMC doctor responded that it referred to a “ward boy who has been working at the hospital for a long period and can perform this work”. MSHRC concluded in its order, “This reminds of the situation in some parts of the country where medical treatment is given by quacks known as Zola Chaap Doctors, but this commission never even dreamed of such a situation prevailing in a hospital run by one of the richest municipal corporations in the country.“
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