Come clear, Bombay High Court tells Maharashtra on medical negligence in many Covid-19 deaths

The Bombay High Court has asked the Maharashtra government to make its stand clear on the issue of compensation to the family of Covid-19 victims for alleged culpable negligence by the state government and civic hospitals.

The court took up the plea highlighting 11 incidents of negligence by the hospitals. The plea was filed by BJP MLA Ashish Shelar.

“The court called upon the state to file a further affidavit explaining all the incidents alleged by us since they had not dealt with all the incidents. Also what arrangement will the state make to compensate the families of the victims who have died due to negligence,” said advocate Akshay Pai who represents Shelar in the high court.

The court also recommended that the state should implement guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in respect of body management and further guidelines prescribed by the Calcutta High Court in its judgment in September.

The court also gave Shelar the liberty to suggest additional guidelines for body management in the state of Maharashtra.

Shelar had highlighted in his petition the mismanagement at the civic hospitals especially in Mumbai and other rural parts of Maharashtra. In his petition, Shelar had pointed out theAmongst 10 other cases, Shelar’s affidavit in the case pointed out to a case of May 2020 when a woman had desperately tried to get an ambulance but got it only after 10 hours to take the body to a burial ground. Another example is the Jalgaon case where a woman was untraceable for eight days but was later found dead in the washroom.

The dean and two other doctors of the hospital were suspended in the case.

In yet another case highlighted by Shelar from media reports was of a 62-year-old patient who lost life while waiting on a wheelchair at a hospital.