Panel faults Beed hospital for irregularities

Irregularities in records at the civil hospital in Beed, which has the lowest sex ratio in the state, came to the fore when the national inspection and monitoring committee (NIMC), which monitors the implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Tests (PCPNDT) Act, 1994, visited the hospital on Tuesday.

The district is the centre of sex-selective abortions in the state. The five-member team also raided two private hospitals in Beed. A sonography machine at Dhakne Hospital was sealed. The team also raided Joshi Hospital.

A member of the committee told DNA that records in the sonography department of the civil hospital were not up to the mark and the authorities could not explain it. "Certain norms are to be followed while doing sonography, but the hospital does not seem to be serious about following the PCPNDT Act. We have, therefore, asked the authorities to seal the sonography machine there," the member said.

Civil surgeon Gauri Rathod, the appropriate authority, was not available for comment or to confirm whether the machine in the civil hospital was sealed, as instructed by the committee. She had switched off her cellphone.

The committee also criticised the radiologist of the hospital and asked the administration to concentrate on implementation of the PCPNDT Act, rather than just conducting awareness drives about sex-selective abortions. The committee observed that people with inappropriate qualification were conducting sonography.

The member said that though the recent action by the government in the district had curbed illegal sex selection tests, they were still going on in some hospitals. The rate for such tests and sex-selective abortions had shot up in the past few months.