Don’t kill the hospital

A branch of the Max Hospital in Delhi had its licence withdrawn by the Union Territory government following a case of shocking negligence on the part of doctors who declared a living infant dead and handed the “body” to the poor patients. The baby later stirred and received medical attention but was too feeble to pull through.

The case received national attention and fed into the narrative of the private medical sector behaving like sharks, which is not far from the truth by and large, although there are ethical practitioners and bad ones. But the cancellation of the hospital’s licence is an issue which continues to stir debate.

The issue, quite simply is this: In a country in which medical services are woefully inadequate, should a massive facility be shut down even if a couple of doctors and their supervisors have goofed up so badly on basic medical judgment that a precious life has been lost? Now many in-patients do not know where to turn. Outpatients who flooded the hospital everyday are not sure of alternative facilities in the neighbourhood.

Perhaps there is something to the view that the medical and administrative staff in question should be handed the penalty they deserve, and exemplary punishment may be called for in order to serve as an example. However, shutting down the hospital amounts to punishing the entire local community.

It is worth asking if the Delhi government would have shut down a government hospital in similar circumstances? This is not a private versus public discussion. But the AAP government does appear to have gone overboard in order to earn political brownie points. However, that objective too appears elusive.