Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday ordered a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into the death of a woman who died soon after giving birth to a child at Midnapore Medical College and Hospital (MMCH) last week after allegedly being administered with ‘expired’ Ringer’s Lactate (RL) saline. During a meeting in Nabanna, Banerjee made it clear that no negligence will be tolerated and nobody will be spared if found guilty.
Chief Secretary Manoj Pant after holding a meeting with Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam admitted that there might be negligence that could have led to such an incident. Incidentally, the Chief Minister herself held a meeting with 10 top health officials and 10 expert doctors on Monday discussing the primary report submitted by the expert committee and unequivocally stated her government would not tolerate such incidents and action will be taken against those who will be found guilty.
The preliminary report filed by the 13-member expert committee indicated that “human error” and side effects of some “other medicines” could have led to the death of a woman and three others falling critically ill after giving birth to their children. Since the incident, it was alleged that due to the administration of “expired” fluid.
The report also hinted that the Ringer’s Lactate (RL) on the Intravenous (IV) fluid allegedly administered to the four women could have a “little role” in deteriorating the health conditions of the five women. The report also stated that none of the seniors who were supposed to be on duty at that time at MMCH were present and those delivery cases were handled only by trainee medics.
A senior health official claimed: “The RL of the same batch was administered on other patients as well, but only these four women fell ill. So, contamination from that fluid could not be the reason behind the death of the patient.” Speaking to the media at Nabanna, the Chief Secretary said: “As per the primary investigation, there was some negligence spotted. After the complete report of the probe comes in, it will determine who were on duty at the time of incident and how far they were responsible. The procedure is always performed in presence of a senior doctor but in this case junior doctors handled the situation.
We had earlier ordered that junior doctors will have to work under senior doctors and they will have to maintain a duty roster.” The state government has made it clear that the probe by CID in the matter will go on in a parallel manner with the ongoing probe by the state Health department appointed
probe committee.
The 13-member probe committee that the state government had formed after the incident submitted a primary report on Monday hinting at negligence. The CID will submit a primary report within the next 3 days.
“The 13-member committee has submitted a report saying that there was negligence on the part of health workers in the hospital and hence a CID probe was ordered. Questions have been raised over
some medicines.
Health department monitors the supply and quality of medicines. Samples have been collected and examined. An order has been issued to clear those which are unrequired,” CS. State Health dept on Sat issued order asking all govt hosps to stop using 10 fluids for safety of patients
Incidentally, in a parallel development, the state Health department on Monday ordered all the Chief Medical Officers of health in the districts and the principals of all the medical colleges to discard and not to use Ringer’s Lactate (RL) saline till any further order. Three other women, who fell critically ill, were shifted to SSKM hospital around 11 pm on Sunday.