Refused admission at pvt hosp, Ranchi woman loses unborn baby

Ranchi: A women suffered a miscarriage on Sunday night after a private hospital in Ranchi’s Harmu locality refused to admit her and healthcare staff remained absent at the state-run hospitals.
Sources said not a single healthcare worker was available at sadar hospital when she reached there. After waiting for 45 minutes, she visited an urban health training centre at Doranda locality, designated to help pregnant women, but the on-duty doctor was missing, delaying her treatment by a further 30 minutes.
The woman’s husband Vinay Murmu, “Soon after the hospital in Harmu refused to admit her, I took her to sadar hospital, but not a single person was available there. After waiting for 45 minutes, I took her to the Doranda centre, but the doctor who was supposed to be on duty was not present,” said.
Even though heath minister Banna Gupta on Monday criticised the doctors at Doranda and sadar hospital and directed department secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni to investigate the matter, the plight of pregnant women continued. A nine-month pregnant woman was refused admission at the Doranda centre because she did not have a Covid-19 negative report.
“The nurses refused to admit her and told us to visit Rims for a Covid-19 test. Even after her swab samples were collected with the help of the district administration official, doctors at sadar hospital refused to admit her. We have no choice but to return home,” said Saraswati Devi, the woman’s mother in-law.
Ranchi DC Rai Mahimapat Ray said: “We have taken cognisance of the issue and have directed the district officials to ensure that a sample collection team is stationed at the Doranda centre. We will issue show-cause notices to the private hospitals that refused to admit the patients.”
Even though chief minister Hemant Soren has instructed that out-patient departments (OPDs) in private and public hospitals should remain open to prevent a medical crisis, private hospitals in the city continue to refuse patients, As many as eight people have died due to this in the last month.
On April 25, the state health authorities had announced that an Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) team from Ranchi will be deployed at Doranda centre to collect swab samples of pregnant woman visiting the centre before they are admitted, but neither the team nor the on-duty doctor were available when the patient arrived. Ranchi civil surgeon Dr V B Prasad did not respond to TOI’s calls or text messages.
In the last month, a 14-year-old girl from Hindpiri died after she was refused scheduled dialysis by a leading private hospital as she didn’t have a Covid-19 test report. Five other critically ill patients died in the city due to the hesitance of private hospitals in providing them admission. Most of them were patients who needed dialysis. Two miscarriages have also been reported due to refusal of admission to pregnant women at private hospitals.