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Sassoon Hospital’s fall from grace: Kidney scam, drug bust and blood sample switch
In a span of nearly 20 months, the hospital had as many as six medical superintendents; none of them completed their minimum term
Sassoon General Hospital (SGH) in Pune – the destination for healthcare for patients from western Maharashtra and Marathwada -- has been in the red over the last five years. The image of the 1800-bed hospital which conducts between 2000-2500 OPDs and over 500 surgeries every day, has been tarnished from allegations of unethical practices by its staff.
The arrests of two doctors – casualty medical officer Dr Srihari Halnor and head of forensic medicine department Dr Ajay Taware -- and member of a class 4 staff, Atul Ghatkamble, for their alleged involvement in switching blood samples of the minor accused who drove his Porsche over two IT professionals recently, has added to its infamy. Dr Halnor and Ghatkamble were suspended from the hospital on Wednesday.
Lamenting the fall from grace of one of the top medical institutes of Maharashtra, Sanjay Deshmukh, former secretary of the medical education department, said, “The institute needs a good dean and administrator who can work efficiently to bring back its lost sheen. It will take much effort to achieve this over the next few years.” Given its recent dark past, NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule demanded an audit of the hospital over the last five years on Tuesday.
In the recent drink-and-drive case, Pune police have said that Dr Taware had hatched the plan to manipulate the blood report of the accused and involved Dr Halnor to carry out the scheme, for an exchange of “a huge sum of money” from the teen’s father, a prominent Pune builder. While police are unsure about the bribe money paid to Dr Taware, investigating officers have said that ₹2.5 lakh was given to Dr Halnor and ₹50,000 to Ghatkamble, as initial payment.
“We have already seized the money from both Halnor and Ghatkamble. We are not ruling out the possibility of the exchange of a huge sum from the builder to Dr Taware – the latter is yet to disclose it to investigating authorities,” said commissioner of police, Pune, Amitesh Kumar.
Dr Taware is not new to controversy.
He was appointed the medical superintendent of SGH first in August 2015 and remained in that post for eight years, when the term of an incumbent in the position is three years. He was asked to step down twice – first in April 2022 when he became mired in a kidney racket and second in 2024 when a patient in the hospital’s ICU died after being bitten by a rat.
In 2022, Dr Taware was the chairman of the Regional Organ Transplant Authorisation Committee of SGH, when a woman from Kolhapur claimed she was promised ₹15 lakh by an agent for donating her kidney to a patient in a private hospital. In a case of live organ donation, the approvals are issued by this committee. A probe panel was constituted and following the inquiry committee’s report, Dr Taware was asked to step down from the post of medical superintendent by the Director of Medical Education and Research (DMER) on April 13, 2022.
In a span of nearly 20 months -- between April, 2022, and November, 2023 – the hospital had as many as six medical superintendents; none of them completed their minimum term.
The decision to reinstate Dr Taware as the hospital’s superintendent came when drug kingpin Lalit Patil, an undertrial accused of supplying banned substances as part of a drug racket, escaped from SGH on October 2, 2023. Dr Pravin Deokate, the head of orthopaedic department of BJMC, was suspended and later arrested for recommending an extended stay for Patil at the hospital.
Patil was allegedly running the drug cartel from the hospital while undergoing treatment. Soon after his escape, Dr Sanjeev Thakur, the dean of BJ Medical College and SGH, was removed from the position when inquiry against him found negligence of hospital authorities in the case. The drug racket exposed how hospital staff was hand in glove with erring cops in offering special treatment to prisoners.
Dr Taware was reappointed as the medical superintendent within four days, on the recommendation of Wadgaonsheri MLA Sunil Tingre on December 29, 2023, to the medical education minister Hasan Mushrif.
On April 1, 2024, Sagar Renuse, 30, was admitted Sassoon’s ICU after suffering a fall from a bridge. When he subsequently died, his family claimed there were visible rat bites on his body – the claim was borne out by the committee that probed the death; it was also mentioned in the patient’s autopsy report. Dr Taware was asked to step down from his office as medical superintendent of SGH again, and Dr Yellapa Jadhav, associate professor, of the preventive social medicine department took over the position on April 20, 2024. Dr Taware remained the professor and head of the hospital’s forensic medicine department.
Earlier, after a new year’s eve party on December 31, 2023, male post graduate students had allegedly entered the women’s hostel in an inebriated state and created ruckus. At the time, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar had pulled up BJMC’s dean Dr Vinayak Kale and the hospital administration for failing to maintain decorum on the premises.
In June 2022, following complaints from hospital authorities Pune police booked an SGH employee for allegedly issuing fake disability certificate to a citizen. When BJP MLAs Madhuri Misal and Sunil Kamble raised the issue in the Legislative Assembly on August 18, 2022, then minister of medical education, Girish Mahajan, admitted that fake certificates were indeed issued at SGH. In April of that year, a physiotherapist was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹60,000 to issue a disability certificate, while in December the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested a member of a hospital staff for accepting a bribe of ₹ 3,000 for sanctioning a medical bill.
Dr Pallavi Saple, dean of JJ Hospital and chairman of the committee investigating the present blood sample swap issue, said, “The inquiry committee is filing a report in the case, which will be submitted after completing soon. The inquiry was conducted under the Maharashtra Civil Services (Discipline and Appeal) Act 1979.” After the report is tabled, said Dinesh Waghmare, secretary, of the medical education department, “suitable action will be taken”.
