NNWN / New Delhi, 2017-06-20

National Human Rights Commission has issued notices Delhi Chief Secretary and Union Health Secretary calling for a report within four weeks on auto rickshaw driver suffering from chest pain and breathlessness not being provided treatment by the doctors at different government hospitals in Delhi. According to NHRC. the negligence by the doctors was nothing but a violation of right to life and medical care.

Expressing serious concern over the incident, the NHRC has observed how it is painful to know that a person who is timely taken to the nearby hospital is not attended by the doctors even in the National Capital. Instead, he is referred to the other hospital, every time. The Rajiv Gandhi Hospital is a super specialty hospital of Delhi. It is not understandable that the doctor s were not available at such a well equipped hospital.

The news report is indicative of lack of sensitivity towards saving a human life on the part of the doctors of the government run hospitals, who were not able to provide life saving medical treatment to the patient. They only referred the patient to the other hospital. It is apparent that a precious human life could not be saved as the patient was not attended by the doctors and he was forced to travel from one hospital to the other, in a deteriorating condition. Therefore, if the contents of the news report are true, this is a case of sheer negligence by the doctors, amounting to violation of Right to Life and Medical Care of the deceased young man, the NHRC stated.

Autorickshaw driver( 22) complained of pain in chest on June 12 in the afternoon coupled with difficulty in breathing. His family took him to the Hedgewar Hospital in ambulance where he was administered some glucose bottles and was referred to the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital..At the GTB hospital, the patient was kept in the Emergency Ward for three hours but no medical treatment was provided to him, the news report said. After his brother called the police, the hospital admitted him but soon referred him to Rajiv Gandhi Hospital which then referred him to the Safdarjung Hospital but he died on the way to hospital.

The family members alleged that they took the patient to the hospital well in time, even then, the doctors instead of providing treatment, kept on referring him from one hospital to the other. They have alleged that had the treatment been provided by the doctors, in time, the life of the victim could be saved, NHRC stated.