UP govt tells HC Amethi hospital was conducting surgeries without licence

Lucknow, Sep 27 (PTI) Surgeries were being performed at Amethi's Sanjay Gandhi Hospital though it did not have a licence, the Uttar Pradesh government told the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday, defending its action against the hospital run by a trust headed by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.
     The Lucknow Bench of the High Court was hearing a petition filed by the hospital challenging the suspension of its licence after the death of a patient earlier this month.
     Also on Tuesday, the Congress and other constituents of the INDIA opposition bloc decided to temporarily call off their dharna over the issue outside the office of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) on Wednesday evening.
     But employees of the hospital said they would continue their protest till the hospital is allowed to resume its work.
     The licence of the hospital was suspended on September 17 and the facility was sealed after a woman who was admitted there for a minor operation died on September 14. Her husband has alleged that she died due to an overdose of anaesthesia.
     A bench comprising Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manish Kumar, which was hearing a writ petition filed by the hospital's chief operation officer Avadhesh Sharma, sought details of the probe into the death of the patient.
     For the petitioner, senior counsel JN Mathur argued that the suspension order was not sustainable because the authority that passed the order did not have the power to do so.
     The petitioner's counsel alleged that the suspension order was passed due to "ulterior reasons".
     Opposing the plea, additional chief standing counsel Rahul Shukla said that the hospital has no licence to conduct surgeries but even then it was doing so and hence the incident occurred in which a woman died during a minor surgery.
     “The licence has rightly been suspended and the inquiry is going on before passing the final order”, he added.
     The court asked the government counsel to seek instructions from the state on when the probe will be completed.
     The court posted the matter for hearing on October 3.
     Congress leader Deepak Singh and employees of the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital were holding protests separately against the suspension of the hospital's licence.
     Pradeep Singhal, District Congress president, said, "Following discussions with the district officials, it was decided to temporarily call off the protest at CMO's office. Representatives of Samajwadi Party and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have also been informed about it."
     Sonia Gandhi's representative in her Rae Bareli constituency Kishori Lal Sharma had joined the protest Wednesday at the request of the Amethi district party leaders, said Singhal.
     Over 400 employees, who had started an indefinite demonstration at the hospital gate on Tuesday, have decided to continue with their agitation.
     "We will continue with the protest till the hospital is allowed to resume its functioning," hospital employees union leader Sanjay Singh said. 

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)