Mumbai: A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj Chavan directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to ensure that surgery or delivery should not take place in mobile torchlight in any of the civic or State-run hospitals. The division bench was hearing a petition filed by the husband of Shahidunnisa Shaikh, who died after a C-section delivery in the civic-run Sushma Swaraj Maternity Hospital in Mumbai’s Bhandup. Shahidunnisa Shaikh had alleged that his wife’s C-section was performed using a mobile torchlight as the electricity connection in the hospital on the relevant day was down. The division bench observed that ‘lives are precious’ and told the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and also the National Medical Commission (NMC) to play a ‘proactive’ role.
Meanwhile, Government Pleader Poornima Kantharia, who appeared for the BMC, informed the bench that the civic body has taken against the concerned doctors, especially the one, who performed the delivery in mobile torchlight. She said that the doctors were juniors and working on a temporary basis. She further said action is also proposed against the Chief Medical Officer (CMO). However, the bench sought to know the nature of the action proposed against the hospital. “When in a government or a civic-run hospital, there is no generator how can a permission be given to perform any delivery or surgery? What action do you propose to take against the hospital? Till the hospital in question does not have its system in place, how can it be permitted to function… what if tomorrow someone else’s life may go like this. We don’t want a repeat of this incident,” Justice Mohite-Dere made it clear.
The judges sought to know if there are some Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for hospitals in the State to function. “Like is there any SOP for one to begin a hospital, what are the requirements for one to comply with for starting a hospital, what all amenities are needed, what action can be taken if the SOPs are not complied with,” the bench said, Kantharia submitted that the death took place because the junior doctor took the step of operating the woman on his own in the mobile torch light even as the electrical engineer was repairing the lights in the hospital as the electricity was down.