The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission on Monday imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on Pulse Diagnostics for violating its licence conditions.
Retired judge Ashim Banerjee, the commission’s chairperson, said a centreof Pulse Diagnostics on Sarat Bose Road had conducteda procedure on a man who had “varicose veins” though it did not have the licence to do so.
The man’s leg had to be amputated after the procedure.
Though the family complained to the centre about pain in the leg, the centre asked him to come on an appointed date.
When the patient wenton that date, they found infections had developed in the leg.
Banerjee said the centre had the licence to run an OPD clinic with 10 doctors, conduct endoscopy and collect samples for pathological tests. But it had no licence to conduct any surgery.
The commission heard the complaint against the centre earlier in June and asked it to stop conducting procedures.
Banerjee said members of the commission subsequently conducted a surprise inspection at the centre.
“They have no bed and surgeries are done on a trolley. We have asked the state’s director of health services to take appropriate action against the centre,” he said.
“We have imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on Pulse Diagnostics,” he added.
Metro called Ramesh Agarwal, a senior official of Pulse Diagnostics, but the call got disconnected. A text message to him did not elicit a response either.
Apollo penalty
The commission also imposed a penalty of Rs 50,000 on Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals for withdrawing medical support after sending a patient home in its ambulance.
Banerjee said the woman’s condition was critical and doctors had told the family about her state. When she was required to be put on a ventilator, the family opted to take her home instead.
“Doctors told the family that she required critical support and accordingly, she was sent home in an ambulance of the hospital that provided the support,” Banerjee said.
The family thought that the support would remain at home, which could be because of a misunderstanding, he said.
When hospital officials and a doctor who went in the ambulance wanted to withdraw the support on reaching the patient’s home, the family realised they had to arrange the support at home.
“They requested the team from the hospital to let the support remain with the patient till the family made arrangements. They agreed to pay for the extra time the support would remain,” he said.
But the team withdrew the support. “The patient passed away within 10 minutes of withdrawing the support. This is inhuman. We have asked the hospital to pay Rs 50,000 as penalty,” he said.
An official of Apollo hospital said they were yet to get a copy of the order on Monday evening.
