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Video shows women undergoing tubectomy at CHC; superintendent removed
The video, which breaches the patients’ privacy and exposes poor management at the facility, is over a minute long and was shot by an unidentified person in Hargaon CHC of the district
The medical superintendent and a staff nurse of a Sitapur community health centre (CHC) were removed from their posts on Friday hours after a video purportedly showing three women undergoing tubectomy at the facility surfaced on social media.
The video, which breaches the patients’ privacy and exposes poor management at the facility, is over a minute long and was shot by an unidentified person in Hargaon CHC of the district. It shows three women undergoing the procedure on separate operating tables in the facility’s operating theatre (OT).
Taking a serious note of the incident, health minister and deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak ordered a probe, removed the medical superintendent and a staff nurse from their posts, stopped the salaries of two more doctors, and ordered an FIR against two trainee pharmacists deployed at the facility. He also ordered that phones of all staff members present during the incident would be scanned.
The video, however, was said to be recorded several months ago.
“Sterilisation surgeries are not being done in hospitals at present due to festivals. In fact, going by the clothes worn by people in the video, it appears that it was shot during winters. So, we have started looking into the CHC’s duty registers of March and previous months to find out who all were on duty at the operation theatre on the day of the incident,” said Dr Nitesh Verma, the medical superintendent of the CHC.
Dr Verma was later removed and transferred to the CHC in Eliya.
The video shows doctors operating on a half-naked patient, and staff other than those deployed in OT. Also, they are not wearing aprons that are mandatory while entering an OT. The probe ordered will be focused on finding out the person who shot the video and how did he manage to miss getting caught by staff on duty, and if the OT was open to all people.
“Instructions have been given to ensure that protocol at OTs, such as allowing the entry of only staff concerned, ban on the use of mobile phones and dress code, is followed strictly,” said additional director (division) Dr GP Gupta.
According to the code of medical ethics, personal details of patients cannot be made public unless consented by patients or their families. Also, videography is not allowed inside an OT. A video made for teaching or learning purposes is not to be made public.
