Relief for west Delhi hospital

Delhi’s directorate of family welfare that takes care of surveillance under the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PNDT) has ordered de-sealing of the ultrasound room of west Delhi’s Kolmet Hospital.

Delhi’s directorate of family welfare that takes care of surveillance under the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PNDT) has ordered de-sealing of the ultrasound room of west Delhi’s Kolmet Hospital.

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The order, which was issued earlier this week, reads that it would have been appropriate for the district appropriate authority to have first issued a show-cause notice and offered sufficient opportunity to the appellant authority to explain its case.

On June 20, a team comprising Karol Bagh sub-divisional magistrate Pawan Kamra and chief medical officer, PNDT Act, Dr SC Mehra had conducted a raid at the hospital and allegedly found discrepancies in the records that were to be submitted before an ultrasound is conducted. Following this, the team had sealed the ultrasound room and also seized the past year’s record register of the centre.

The hospital authorities had rubbished the allegations and written to the state health minister, chief minister and the deputy commissioner, Daryaganj. “The reasons given for sealing the ultrasound room did not hold under the PNDT Act,” said Dr Ashwani Mehta, medical director of the hospital.