Pune: CM Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said those found responsible for the death of the woman after Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital authorities allegedly denied her treatment would be punished and the state was working on setting up a standard operating procedure for charitable hospitals to avoid similar incidents in the future.
A day after a series of protests by parties at the hospital over the death of 37-year-old Tanisha alias Ishwari Bhise, Fadnavis was in Pune on an official tour. Bhise’s family members met the CM. The deceased was the wife of PA to BJP MLC Amit Gorkhe.
After meeting the family, Fadnavis said, “I assured them action will not be limited only to this case. The state govt will ensure no similar incident takes place elsewhere in future. The committee set up by govt has also arrived in Pune to probe the incident.”
He said, “The state govt is working on bringing the entire functioning of charitable hospitals online so we get information about vacant beds in those facilities. We will be attaching the Chief Minister’s Cell with the online platform to monitor functioning.” Bhise’s relatives alleged that when she was taken to the hospital on March 28 during the seventh month of her pregnancy, the hospital authorities, including the doctor, told the family to deposit Rs 10 lakh in advance before starting treatment. The deceased woman’s family members said they had to shift her to another hospital because of unavailability of money. She delivered twins on March 29, but her condition deteriorated. She was then shifted to another healthcare facility, where she passed away on March 31.
Fadnavis said the medical expenditure of the twins would be done through CM Relief Fund. They are currently in NICU.
While Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital authorities denied the allegation of denying treatment, Fadnavis said, “Lata Mangeshkar and other members of her family took efforts in setting up the hospital. Various surgeries are performed at the hospital and I am not saying all the things at the hospital are wrong. But the recent incident was indeed wrong and insensitive. If the hospital authorities take efforts to rectify it, I will be happy.”
Replying to a question if an offence would be registered against the hospital authorities, the CM said, “We have got the primary findings, but we will have to wait till we get the final report from the committee. Even if we have to register an offence, we will require the findings of the report to decide which sections should be applied.”
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray criticized the CM and asked why govt is not taking over operations of the hospital and giving it to the state/municipal corporation’s health department to run.