Mumbai: A viral video, which shows a man entering the BYL Nair Hospital and drawing blood from a serious heart patient without being questioned by doctors or nurses, has raised a question mark on the safety of those admitted at the civic-run hospitals. The clip, which surfaced on social media on August 21, was shot by an activist who alleged that the man was in an inebriated condition.
Nexus between private labs and hospital doctors
According to a source, there is a nexus between private labs and hospital doctors for sending blood samples of patients for testing outside and hence earning commissions. “There are WhatsApp groups of all private labs for each hospital. Members of that group are assigned details of patients for collecting blood,” he said.
While the activist said that he had received a tip-off that private lab executives brazenly visit civic hospitals and take blood samples for testing. “I stopped that man and questioned him about his identity, asking whether he is from the hospital or private laboratories and who asked him to take the blood sample, however, he was drunk. While admitting that he is from Medilab, he said that he was asked to take a blood sample of the patient,” alleged the activist.
He further said that he also questioned the administration about who will take responsibility if a patient dies. “I had received many complaints from patients' relatives that people from private labs come to the wards to collect the samples. Moreover, this practice is done in all state and civic-run hospitals,” the activist added.
The FPJ has the screenshots of conversations on the MediLab WhatsApp group, which was closed a day after the video went viral. The last message on the group read, “Don't accept any sample from Nair Hospital. Medilab had never permitted anyone to go inside the hospital for blood collection. Fake people are using Medilab's name to defame it.” Despite several attempts, the representative, who posted the instruction, couldn't be reached.
Meanwhile, the hospital administration has refuted the allegation. A senior official from the Nair Hospital said “There are some tests which are not done in the hospital and relatives of patients are informed about it. After a patient's relatives give consent for getting those tests done from outside, a person comes to the hospital to take samples.”
