Mumbai: Finding the offence serious, a sessions court last week rejected the bail application of a man who practised as a gynaecologist without license and also ran an unauthorised hospital. The matter came to light when a newborn died soon after delivery due to negligence of a nurse.
The complaint was lodged by the aggrieved mother Sana Shaikh at the Shivaji Nagar police station. She had registered in May this year at New Lotus Hospital for treatment during pregnancy and for delivery. The accused, Qayamuddin Shaikh, had given her consultations. She experienced labour pain before the due date and rushed to the hospital. There, she complained, during over 2.5 hours of labour, there was no doctor present and the delivery was conducted by nurses. The infant was born and she said she saw her baby slip from the hands of a nurse and fall. The nurse immediately called her mother and, telling that the baby’s condition was critical, advised that they take him to another hospital. They took the infant to another hospital, however, there was no ventilator available and they were asked to go to yet another hospital, where he was declared dead. Qayamuddin, on the letterhead of another hospital he runs, issued a death certificate signed by another doctor stating the child was ‘stillborn’. During the probe the police found that Khan was not registered with the Maharashtra Medical Council and his hospital too did not have the BMC’s permission to operate.
Khan had claimed bail by distancing himself from the hospital, saying he had nothing to do with it. He also denied giving treatment to Shaikh and she had walked into the facility that day for delivery. Further, he said he had applied for a registration.
The court said he was found running a hospital without the permission of the BMC. His involvement in running other hospitals is also brought on record and the acts committed by him are serious, Additional Sessions Judge Sanjashree Gharat stated in her order.
The court said the fact is he does not have a registration, was running the hospital and is vicariously liable for the act of the nursing staff. The court also remarked on the subsequent conduct of the nurse, knowing that the newborn was alive after birth, the cause of death was mentioned as ‘stillborn’. It said the applicant had created a fake document to support their false claim.
