SHILLONG: The High Court of Meghalaya has expressed concern over the death of a newborn baby at Ganesh Das Hospital and sought a response from the government.
In a related development, the Congress legislator, PT Sawkmie petitioned Meghalaya Human Rights Commission (MHRC) on Thursday seeking action against the hospital staff for the delay in admitting the pregnant woman leading to the death of her newborn baby.
During the hearing of a pending PIL on COVID on Thursday, the counsels for the High Court of Meghalaya Bar Association, have drawn the attention of the court to the tragic incident due to purported indifference and negligence at the hospital, which according to the petitioners is a designated COVID-19 treatment institution. “This court notes that this incident has in the past few days been widely reported and is indeed very unfortunate to say the least, more so, when the mother of the baby is a resident of a designated containment area wherein strict protocols and SOPs are supposed to be in place”, the court observed.
The court directed the Advocate General to get details regarding the incident and the steps that have been taken by the authorities in this regard.
The court also asked SP Mahanta, senior counsel and K Paul, Advocate, to file an affidavit with relevant supporting materials on the matter, which they have raised by their verbal submissions.
Earlier, Sawkmie, in a letter to the MHRC Chairman, said the death of the newborn baby on July 28 was after the mother from Mawlai Mawtawar, a containment zone, suffered humiliation since the hospital staff had turned her away.
“I urge the commission to step in and take immediate action and also order an inquiry into misbehaviour of the staff”, Sawkmie said.
The MLA also pointed out that on earlier occasions too, similar negligence of the staff was reported.
The Congress spokesperson, Zenith Sangma has also condemned the incident.
“This is due to negligence of the authority. The hospital authority, at the first instance, should not have denied admission to the patient as she is one of the residents of containment zone. This is nothing but social stigmatisation made by the hospital staff. Issuing show-cause notice is not going to help. It is the reflection of inefficiency in governance and lack of experience of the leadership”, Zenith said.
According to the legislator, after something goes wrong or after some precious lives are lost, the government always tries to find out the remedy.
“I have been always talking about being proactive. The government should come up with a strong legislation or ordinance by making social stigma a criminal offence. Then only we can control”, he added.
