Delhi | Woman who gave birth on pavement was given admission, not guided through process: Safdarjung inquiry

Five doctors of the gynaecology department were asked for explanations, which included the head of the department, a professor and three junior doctors, including an intern, who was on duty on the day of the incident.

A woman who gave birth on a pavement outside Safdarjung Hospital was offered admission by the doctors on duty but her family was not properly guided through the procedure, an inquiry into the incident has found, according to doctors privy to the report.

Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi. (HT File Photo)

Documents produced by the gynaecology department showed that 22-year-old Poonam Singh, who delivered a baby girl on a pavement outside the hospital on July 19, was offered admission but the doctors on duty did not guide the family through the process. This could have caused a “misunderstanding” and led to the family not admitting the women, the doctors aware of the initial inquiry said, seeking anonymity.

“The doctors on duty have produced the admission slip, which also has a written consent from the woman’s husband,” a doctor from the hospital said. “The initial inquiry shows that since the woman was not going into labour immediately, the doctors did not guide her properly, because of which she ended up roaming around the hospital instead of getting admitted.”

On July 19, Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital came under the scanner after Singh, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, was referred to the hospital from Dadri as an emergency case, but gave birth outside the hospital near a trash can. A video of the incident started doing the rounds on social media, which prompted the Union health ministry to set up a fact-finding committee.

Five doctors of the gynaecology department were asked for explanations, which included the head of the department, a professor and three junior doctors, including an intern, who was on duty on the day of the incident.

The inquiry report is expected to be submitted to the ministry early next week.

The family of the woman, however, denied that the hospital offered admission.

“They are saying that they asked her to be admitted. The truth, however, is that they asked us to go and get an ultrasound for which we waited till late at night (on July 18). They then refused to get the ultrasound and sent us away. By morning, her (Poonam’s) condition was so bad that she could barely stand,” said Yashoda Devi, Poonam’s mother-in-law.