Minister of medical education sets up 3-member panel to investigate charge that doctors delegated sensitive procedures .
Sandeep Ashar
MUMBAI: A hospital sweeper has been carrying out sensitive medical procedures, encouraged and compensated by doctors apparently suffering from sloth.
An internal report submitted by a senior doctor of the state-run Sir JJ Group of Hospitals’ medicine department accuses Tejilal Padaya (44), the facility’s sweeper, of collecting blood samples and carrying out lumbar punctures and procedures to relieve fluid build-up in the abdominal region. The last two tasks involve inserting a needle into patients to drain fluid.
A source said Padaya had been in ‘practice’ for three years now. “Padaya did it upon the insistence of some doctors, who were lazy and apparently preferred resting to patient care,” the source said.
Padaya allegedly received an additional Rs400 a day for his ‘consultancy’. He has been associated with the hospital’s endocrinology ward for 13 years.
Padaya’s medical moonlighting came to light on October 10 when a patient — who had fainted the previous day after Padaya collected her blood sample — complained to Dr Vidya Nagar, a senior official in the medicine department.
After further investigation, Nagar unearthed three similar complaints from other patients. The matter was brought to the notice of the hospital administration in writing. The administration immediately transferred Padaya to the medical intensive care unit. Nagar has refused to comment on the case.
The issue, however, stimulated swift action from the government. Dilip Walse-Patil, the Maharashtra minister for medical education, has ordered a high-level investigation. “We have set up a three-member panel that will probe the matter,” Walse-Patil said. “All those found guilty of allowing a non-medical staffer to practise will be taken to task.”
The hospital’s dean Dr Pravin Shingare said he has asked the hospital superintendent, Dr Arun Pol, to examine the allegations. “The committee, headed by Dr Nagar, will investigate if the sweeper performed a medical task independently,” Pol said. “We are expecting a report by October 16.”
Padaya has admitted to having assisted doctors in performing lumbar punctures, collecting blood samples, dispatching blood and urine samples to pathological labs, and dismantling used syringes.
But he denied having ever operated upon a patient independently.“I am a victim of vendetta. I have done nothing that could harm patients,” Padaya said. “All the procedures I performed were on the insistence of doctors.”
Padaya also denied that he was paid additional money for the medical chores. Sources in the hospital, however, claimed that Padaya recently bought a 325 square foot flat in an upper-middle-class locality in Nallasopara, implying that he had sources of income other than his wage.
Some doctors have suggested that Padaya may have been drafted to offset staff shortage. “Only eight of the 17 post-graduate posts at the hospital are occupied,” a senior doctor said. “There are large-scale vacancies in the sweeper and labour-class positions too.”
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