Death after weight reduction surgery: Madras High Court quashes order suspending hospital licence

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court quashed the order suspending the license of B.P Jain hospital, unit of Sankara Health Education and Charitable Trust, Chennai for conducting bariatric surgery to a youngster for his morbid obesity problem which lead to his death.

It is true that an unfortunate occurrence had taken place, however for such a solitary occurrence, recourse to suspension or temporary cancellation of registration was an extreme measure, wrote Justice GR Swaminathan while allowing the petition moved by the hospital.

The institution has been in existence for 23 years and charges only Rs 100 for out-patient, nearly 2 million out patients have been attended to, there have been 45,000 in-patients and as many as 8500 surgeries have been carried out successfully, read the judgment.

"We are witnessing an era of corporatisation of medical care, in such a situation, the existence of hospitals which do not charge much are highly necessary and the role played by such institutions will have to be recognized, " wrote the judge.

As a result of the order suspending the license of the hospital the sufferers will be the patients, therefore, the authority must balance the competing considerations, wrote the judge

Since the death of the youngster got much media attention the government would have issued the suspending order by knee jerk reaction and grossly disproportionate, read the judgment.

Government advocate K Tippu Sultan submitted that proviso to section 5 (2) of Hospital and Clinical Establishments (Regulation) Act, 1997 enables the competent authority to suspend the registration of any clinical establishment without any notice.

The hospital cannot assail the impugned order on the ground of violation of principles of natural justice, the government advocate added.

However the judge allowed the hospital to function by quashing the order suspending the license.

On April 21, the deceased youngster S Hemachandran was admitted in the BP Jain hospital, Pammal, Chennai on the advise of doctor T Perungo, for conducting bariatric surgery for his morbid obesity problem.

On the account of improper rendering of service, Hemachandran developed complications and shifted to another private hospital at Chromepet, where he died on April 23.

On May 5, the joint director of health services, Chengalpattu conducted an surprise inspection at BP Jain hospital and found several lapse. Hence, an order was issued to temporarily cancelling the license of the hospital.