Srinagar: In November, a pregnant woman in Bandipora district of Kashmir was turnout away from being treated inside the hospital as she was Covid positive, forcing her to deliver the baby in the hospital compound.
After a lot of protests and media glare, the government constituted an inquiry committee headed by assistant commissioner of the district. When he started the investigation, he reportedly tested Covid positive and after that no one knows about the fate of this inquiry.
Hospital Superintendent Dr Bashir Ahmad Teli also does not know the pace of the inquiry while as initially chief medical officer of Bandipora had virtually indicted the doctors and the head of the hospital for their negligence in this pregnant woman case.
Soon after the incident, Deputy Commissioner Bandipora Owais Ahmed not only ordered an inquiry, but also issued a show-cause notice to the medical superintendent and medical officer of District Hospital Bandipora who were on duty at the time of the incident. He also asked the committee headed by ASR to submit a report within seven days. When this reporter on Saturday tried to get the contents of the inquiry report, it seems that it is yet to be submitted, though the officials were very reluctant even to talk about whether the inquiry has been conducted or not.
The lady who was forced to give birth to the baby in such a severe winter in the hospital compound is from a very remote village of Bandipora and had every chance to lose her life. Soon after she tested positive for Covid-19, the district hospital doctors and staff referred her to a Covid facility some 30 km away at Hajin village.
While she was pleading with them for entry into the hospital, according to the initial report, she developed intense pain and delivered outside the hospital.
Doctors maintained at that time that they delayed to take the patients to the Covid facility and they did not leave her in the ground of the hospital to deliver. Eyewitnesses and her family members had told the media soon after the incident became public that she was crying with pain at the gate of the hospital and finally she delivered the baby. The husband of the victim Abdul Aziz Bhat said that he has no information if the government has taken action against those doctors who were on duty at that time. District authorities were busy with DDC polls and refused to confirm whether the inquiry report reached the Deputy Commissioner of Bandipora or not. It seems that soon after the news died down, the report was not completed.