Delhi High Court seeks response from authorities on plea alleging two doctors at Fortis Hospital working without qualification

The Delhi High Court recently sought the response of the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the Delhi Medical Council (DMC) on a petition seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the allegations that two doctors were being allowed to work at Delhi’s Fortis Hospital as specialist/super-specialist without the requisite qualifications..Justice Yogesh Khanna also sought response from the two doctors, Vivek Jain and Akhilesh Singh and posted the case for further consideration on April 19. .The Court was hearing a petition filed by a five-year-old child, Devarsh who alleged that he suffered brain damage during his birth at Fortis on August 12, 2017.The Court was informed that the child was born at Fortis in August 2017 and was initially declared unwell by the hospital immediately after the delivery through C-section.The new born baby (petitioner) was then shifted by the hospital to Neonatal ICU under the care and supervision of doctors Jain and Singh.After providing the newborn child with "intensive care" in the Neonatal ICU for 12 days, the doctors discharged the child as a perfectly healthy baby, the plea said.“However, the truth was otherwise and the child was not healthy as certified by the accused doctors. As stated above, the child turned into a vegetable in the next 7 months and is presently suffering with unabated Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy along with "West Syndrome",” the petition argued..The petitioner further said that recently they got to know that the doctors are not even qualified and entitled to practice as either neonatologists or pediatricians.“It was further discovered that, even today they are practising as Neonatologist and Pediatricians at Fortis Hospital in full fledged control of the Neonatal ICU, thereby putting lives of critically sick new born babies to imminent danger.”The plea further alleged that hospital, with a motive to evade its responsibility, prepared false medical records of the child and concealed his injury from the parents.“As a consequence, the child remained deprived of any medical treatment and kept suffering infantile spasm/seizures for over 7 months at home till his brain got completely damaged. The same has rendered the child permanently disabled, both mentally and physically. Today he is suffering from acute Epilepsy and Cerebral Palsy and is diagnosed with a rare medical condition called the “West Syndrome,” the plea said..Senior Advocate Mohit Mathur along with advocates Sachin Jain, Peeyush Kalra, Ajay Kumar Agarwal and Rajeev Ranjan Diwedi appeared for the petitioner.Central Government Standing Counsel Anurag Ahluwalia appeared for the Central government.Additional Standing Counsel (ASC) Sanjeev Bhandari along with advocates Kunal Mittal and Saurabh Tanwar appeared for the State.ASC Rishikesh Kumar with advocates Sudhir Shukla, Sumit Choudhary, Aditya Raj and Sheenu Priya appeared for the Delhi Police.Advocates T Singhdev, Abhijit Chakravarty, Ramanpreet Kaur, Tanishq Srivastava, Aabhas Sukramani, Bhanu Gulati and Arun Hussain appeared for Respondent No 5.Advocate Praveen Khattar appeared for DMC.Advocates Arjun Dewan, S Shankaran and Akash Arore appeared for Respondents 7 and 8..[Read Order]