Days after it declared a pre-term baby dead, the Delhi government on Friday cancelled the licence for Max Hospital in Shalimar Bagh. The scale of medical negligence by the hospital was "unacceptable" Delhi Health Minister Satyender Jain said. The baby boy, born at 22 weeks, was one of the twins born to Varsha Kumar on November 30th at the private hospital. The other twin, a girl, was stillborn. The boy was declared dead, but was found alive by the parents while on their way to the cremation ground. He was taken to a different hospital in the city, where he died on Wednesday.
Jain said that the hospital was a "habitual offender" and had been found guilty of other irregularities in the recent past. For instance, an inspection last month had revealed that the hospital had a separate OPD for patients belonging to the economically weaker section. This OPD was located in a corner of the hospital with a "makeshift waiting area with broken chairs". The condition of this OPD and the waiting area was "pathetic", services were "discriminatory" and free OPD services were provided to less than seven per cent patients. In another instance cited in the cancellation order, the hospital had asked for the government's permission to increase the beds on the premise that these would be allotted to dengue, chikungunya and fever cases only. However, on inspection it was found that these beds were allocated to patients undergoing other surgeries.
The minister said that based on these instances, and the wrongful declaration of the baby's death, the hospital's licence was being cancelled with immediate effect. Patients admitted to the hospital will be given a choice to stay or to be shifted to another hospital, he said. But the hospital would not be allowed to admit new patients.
A day before this order, Ashish Kumar, 25, father of the baby had told THE WEEK that the family would like to see the arrest of doctors involved, as an FIR had been registered in the matter. "These babies had come to us after three years of marriage. I have not been able to face my wife ever since this incident happened. She has been inconsolable," he said. Kumar said that despite the outrage over the case, the Delhi government had not intervened by shifting the baby, while it was alive, to a better hospital, in an attempt to save his life.
Following widespread media outrage, the Delhi government had initiated a probe into the matter last week. The preliminary report of the committee had found the hospital "guilty" of not having followed prescribed medical norms in dealing with newborn infants. The hospital had in a statement said that while we understand that survival in "extreme pre-term birth rates is rare", it is "always painful for the parents and the family".
The Delhi medical association, however, had taken a strong position on the matter. "There is no set protocol and guidlines for such extremely pre-term deliveries," it said in a statement. "Ïndian law considers foetus upto 24 weeks as non-survivable and non-viable," the statement said, citing the MTP Act that allows abortion upto 20 weeks, and the courts that allow 24 weeks in rare cases.
The statement further said that the clinical approach to handling extremely pre-term fetus of less than 24 weeks of pregnancy is not "viable" for survival. "Many times, due to hypothermia, the heart beat in these cases is absent, and reverts from time to time," the statement read.
DMA members also cited that such cases have occured in the past as well, inlcuding the one in Safrdarjung in June 2017. "Clinical criteria such as Apgar scores are used world over for assessing [a baby] in the delivery room. In case parents decide not to resuscitate or not to provide intensive care treatment, the pre-viable baby is given only comfort care and checked for any signs of life..." the statement read.
