Bihar hospitals in trouble over sexual assault on woman, drug mismanagement
Bhagalpur police has arrested a ward boy of a hospital in the district following the woman’s complaint of sexual harassment.
Bihar hospitals in trouble over sexual assault on woman, drug mismanagement
A probe revealed that the Bhagalpur hospital’s drug store was illegally selling medicines given as samples to physicians apart from expired drugs.
By Avinash Kumar
PUBLISHED ON MAY 12, 2021 01:19 PM IST
A ward boy of a private hospital in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district was arrested late Tuesday night over allegations of sexually harassing a Covid-19 patient’s wife. The said hospital has also been found guilty of mismanagement in a probe by district authorities, said police.
Bhagalpur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Nitasha Gudiya confirmed the arrest of hospital’s ward boy Jyoti Kumar after taking cognisance of a video narrating the woman’s ordeal, which went viral on social media. The woman had also alleged medical negligence by the Bhagalpur hospital. That’s not all, she had also accused a doctor of a private hospital in Patna of sexually abusing her when her husband was shifted to the state capital for treatment.
The SSP said following her complaint, a joint team of Bhagalpur administration and the state drug department started a probe into the conduct of the Bhagalpur hospital. The three-member team comprising senior ADM (additional district magistrate) Triloki Nath Singh, drug inspector Dayanand Prasad and assistant drug inspector Pradip Kumar found many irregularities and seized internal records of treatment of the woman’s husband. During their probe, they also found that the hospital’s drug store was illegally selling medicines given as samples to physicians apart from expired drugs.
A scrutiny of the woman’s husband’s treatment record also revealed that the hospital procured three vials of Remdesivir injection for his treatment but administered only two vials on April 18 and 20.
They also found another case of a missing vial of Remdesivir injection, procured for treatment of one Mamata Devi, who was admitted to the hospital on April 28 and died on May 3. The hospital’s claim that the remaining vials had been handed over to the patients’ kin were denied by the two families. The findings assume significance in the backdrop of rampant black marketing of Remdesivir injections, used for treating severe Covid cases.
Senior ADM Triloki Nath Singh said the committee will recommend cancellation of the licence given to the hospital’s drug store.
Meanwhile, the woman has said she will also lodge a formal complaint against a Patna hospital, where her husband died on May 8 after he was shifted from the Bhagalpur hospital following deterioration in his condition on April 26. She said a doctor at the hospital touched her inappropriately several times during his visits to the ICU. She said she didn’t raise her voice then fearing for her husband’s life.