Court directs NHL to appoint probe officer.
The AMC-run NHL Medical College has won a two-year-old legal battle against
a serving doctor who had been suspended for negligence in treatment of a patient admitted to the hospital in 2004.
Justice MR Shah of the Gujarat high court has given his nod to conduct an inquiry against the doctor by vacating the stay granted by Gujarat affiliated colleges services tribunal about two years back. The court directed the medical college authorities to appoint an inquiry officer who had sufficient knowledge of medical education and held a rank higher than the erring doctor.
According to the case details, one Dr Rajesh Shah is working as an assistant professor of surgery in the NHL Medical College. In 2004, he conducted an operation of hernia on a patient, overlooking the report of the head of the department that the patient need not be operated for the disease.
The patient’s kin lodged a complaint against the doctor when the former started suffering from complications after operation.
After an initial inquiry, NHL Medical College authorities suspended the doctor; however, he was able to resume duty as a division bench of the Gujarat high court granted interim stay order against suspension. The college, then, started departmental inquiry against him. However, the Gujarat affiliated colleges services tribunal, in its interim order, stayed the inquiry two years back. The interim stay order was neither vacated nor confirmed despite repeated efforts by the college lawyers.
Then, the college approached the high court. Mukund Desai, counsel for the NHL colleges, submitted that a departmental inquiry can’t be initiated as the tribunal has granted a stay order. Therefore, the order of the tribuanl needed to be quashed.
On the other hand, Bhaskar Tanna, counsel of Dr Shah, contended that the college has appointed a retired superintendent of octroi department of the AMC for inquiry. The inquiry officer should have knowledge of medical education and be of a higher rank than Dr Shah, he pleaded before the court.
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