Govt probe indicts AIIMS-Patna for mess over death certificate of Covid victim

The three-member probe panel found that AIIMS neither had the requisite documentary evidence nor had it followed the norms of registration of birth and death while changing the name of the spouse of the deceased on the portal of the civil registration system.

A Bihar government probe has found that the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna, had erred in issuing two death certificates for the same Covid-19 patient, with different names of spouse on each, said officials familiar with the matter.

The AIIMS building in Patna. (HT Photo)

The three-member probe panel found that AIIMS neither had the requisite documentary evidence nor had it followed the norms of registration of birth and death while changing the name of the spouse of the deceased on the portal of the civil registration system.

The initial death certificate for Rajeev Kumar Nirala of November 5, 2020, with Prachi Priya as wife, was revised six days later, bearing the name of Puja Kumari. This, said officials, allegedly pointed to connivance of staff for pecuniary gains.

Kumari, on the basis of her name on the death certificate, claimed and received the government ex gratia of ₹4 lakh to the next of kin of the Covid-19 victim. Priya now resides with her parents in Patna.

Nirala, 39, who died of coronavirus after undergoing treatment at AIIMS between October 4 and 22, 2020, had allegedly married the two women — Priya in 2004 and Kumari in 2016.

The Patna edition of Hindustan Times broke this story (titled “AIIMS-Patna|Two death certificates for one man: Families fight over Covid ex gratia after wife’s name revised) on February 10.

Arunish Chawla, additional chief secretary, planning and development, government of Bihar, ordered an inquiry the next day.

The probe team, led by Ravi Shankar, Bihar’s chief registrar of birth and death, also found that the AIIMS, in contravention to rules, was issuing death certificates with scanned signature of its medical superintendent, also the registrar of birth and death at the institute. It asked the medical superintendent to stop forthwith the practice of appending scanned signature on death certificates.

The probe team took details of two employees, a junior medical record officer and a medical record technician, held responsible for the goof-up in the death certificates, and issued warning letters this month, after Hindustan Times sought a response from AIIMS on January 15 on the action it had taken against the guilty officials.

The AIIMS had evaded a response to this reporter’s e-mailed query to its public relations officer (PRO) on January 15, seeking to know on what basis and documentary evidence it had issued the death certificates with different names of spouse on each.

“AIIMS Patna shall cancel both the existing death certificates and issue a fresh death certificate to the father without mentioning any names of the wife as it is not a mandatory field in the death certificate form,” its PRO Dr Shreekant Bharti, additional professor, department of pathology, had said in his e-mailed response on January 27. He was not open to cross-questions.

Chief registrar Shankar refused to divulge details of the probe.

“I will submit my report next week,” he said.