Ganga Ram to contest govt FIR against it for violating norms

The hospital has already allotted two of its subsidiary hospitals- the 140-bed City Hospital and the 40-bed Kolmet Hospital- for treating only Covid-19 patients.

The Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on Sunday described the Delhi government’s first information report (FIR) against it as “unwarranted” and “harassment” and asserted that it would even go to court to get the complaint quashed.

Medical staff in PPE screening a person at the Ganga Ram Hospital in Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

The Delhi government had filed an FIR against the hospital located in Rajendra Nagar for not following protocols for testing patients. The government had asked the hospital to stop testing patients on June 3, citing violations of the ICMR guidelines. The FIR was filed under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code.

“We will contest the FIR as it is totally unwarranted. How can an FIR be filed for not providing data in the format that government wanted? We may not have followed their format but we have been regularly updating Covid data and sending it across to the authorities concerned. So we will ensure that the FIR is quashed even if that means we have to approach the court,” said Dr D S Rana, chairman, board of management of the hospital. “Even though we are not at fault, I went and apologised for any oversight that may have occurred inadvertently and asked to stop this harassment. There was shortage of data entry operators during lockdown so there was difficulty in feeding data in a particular format. There is no criminal offence committed from our side.”

A Delhi government spokesperson refused comment on the hospital contemplating to move the court.

The copy of the FIR against the hospital read: “The order of Health and Family Welfare Department regarding guidelines for tracking and monitoring of every Covid-19 suspected cases tested in various accredited labs across Delhi wherein it was mandatory for the labs to collect sample only through the Delhi government’s RT-PCR App. Further CDMO (Chief District Medical Officer) cum mission director, Central, mentioned that Sir Ganga Ram hospital is still not using RT-PCR app even till today (03/06) which is a clear violation of direction issued under Epidemic Disease Covid-19 regulation 2020.”

Rana said the management is also working on implementing the state government’s June 3 directive to turn the hospital into a dedicated Covid-19 facility. “We are working towards it and have so far managed to convert about 40% of the main hospital into a Covid hospital,” said Rana.

The 675-bed hospital is increasing its ventilator bed count to 60 to treat critical patients.

However, the primary concern of the hospital is to find space for its sick non-Covid patients. “Creating a dedicated Covid-19 facility is not easy as you have to assign staff, change ventilation, among other things. No hospital can turn do this overnight; much less a busy hospital like ours. It requires time as there are about 200 seriously ill patients, mostly cardiac, neuro surgery and nephrology patients who are not fit to be discharged yet. Where will I send them? We do not refuse to help in the pandemic, but at the same time we can’t let non-covid patients die,” said Rana.

The hospital has already allotted two of its subsidiary hospitals- the 140-bed City Hospital and the 40-bed Kolmet Hospital- for treating only Covid-19 patients. “Apart from that 20% of our bed capacity in the main hospital was also assigned for treating Covid-19 patients, so what more did they want?,” said Rana.

The government on June 3 had also ordered the hospital to stop testing for the coronavirus for violating Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines. The hospital said it had to refer about 200 people to other centres from its fever clinic since.

Seema Singh, 46, who was in the hospital for dialysis, was running a fever. She was asked her to tested for the virus. “I asked them to test my sample but they said they could not as the hospital had been barred from doing so for the time being. I come all the way from Ghaziabad and am not sure if I will find a facility to test for Covid there. It’s too much inconvenience for patients,” she says.

The hospital is only testing those samples already under process. “It will only impact overall testing process as other labs will be overburdened and will send results late, more so for government testing labs that anyway are dealing with a huge sample load of their own. Ultimately, patients will suffer and we are helpless,” says Dr Rana.