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New Delhi, Aug 8 - The Delhi High Court Wednesday summoned Delhi's principal health secretary and the medical superintendent of the government-run Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Hospital to explain why its order on improving patient care was not implemented.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice M.K. Sarma asked the top officials to appear in person before it on the next date of hearing Sep 10 as the authorities had failed to execute the order to improve the condition of the hospital and provide better treatment to the patients.
The court-appointed commissioners - Rajiv Bansal and Varun Goswami - complained to the court that the authorities were not cooperating with them when they visited the hospital for inspection.
Despite repeated requests, the hospital authorities did not provide them with identity cards for facilitating their visit to wards and theatres, they said.
Advocate Varun Goswami had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking direction to the hospital for improving its condition as more than 500 newborn babies had died in the 'out-born nursery' there due to the lack of proper facilities for treatment few years back.
The petitioner alleged that newborn babies were treated in a 'grossly neglected and unattended' manner in the nursery as it did not have proper and separate staff and the equipment installed there were obsolete.
Referring to the sole ventilator used for treatment of newborn babies, the petitioner said that it was procured more than two decades ago in 1987 and at present it did not display vital signs like the heart beat rate or pulmonary functions.
Most of the time, it showed error and was dysfunctional, Goswami stated.
Quoting some doctors of the hospital, he alleged that babies admitted to the nursery seldom survived when put on the ventilator, and about 500 babies had so far died due to the faulty medical equipment.
The hospital authorities had spent huge amounts of money on irrelevant activities but had not bothered to procure new ventilators, he alleged.
Also, the hospital had only two phototherapy machines to treat neonatal jaundice and sometimes as many as three babies were placed together in each machine exposing them to an increased and fatal risk of infection, the petitioner said.
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