The Uttar Pradesh government has exonerated a Varanasi hospital that classical singer Pandit Chhannulal Mishra had accused of negligence after his Covid-infected elder daughter died there on May 1.
An unconvinced Mishra, a Padma Vibhushan awardee whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets every time he visits his constituency, has sought CCTV footage from the Medwin Hospital for the seven days daughter Sangita had been admitted there.
Mishra and younger daughter Namrata have alleged the hospital kept them in the dark about Sangita’s treatment and medical condition throughout and let them talk to her just once, that too only after a prime ministerial intervention.Medwin says the hospital treated all Covid patients according to government guidelines.
V.B. Singh, chief medical officer of Varanasi, handed the 15-page inquiry report to district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma who on Sunday sent it to Mishra, now in home isolation in Varanasi city.
“Usually, a three-member team probes such cases but we formed a five-member committee.... It concluded that the patient’s treatment was done as per protocol. There’s nothing to blame the hospital about,” Sharma said.
Mishra said: “I shall try to meet Prime Minister Modi and chief minister Yogi Adityanath.... The hospital management is hiding something and the administration is supporting them.”
The singer from the Kirana gharana was a proposer for Modi when he contested the Lok Sabha election from Varanasi in 2014.
Modi had called Mishra to express condolences after the singer’s wife, Manorama Devi, died of Covid complications on April 26 at a different hospital.
“Medwin staff had initially promised to connect us to my daughter every day via video. But they didn’t,” Mishra said.
“My younger daughter could see and talk to her via a video call on April 29 only after we complained to the Prime Minister. Sangita looked fine at the time. But the hospital staff told us on May 1 morning that she was dead.”
Namrata said: “They obviously didn’t want us to see her for some reason. We want to know what happened in those seven days. We want CCTV footage of those seven days from her ICU room. We want to know what medicines and injections were given to her, what tests were done and what the reports were. The report given to us doesn’t mention these things. I believe that no doctor attended to her after her admission.”
Namrata added: “We had sought time from the chief minister’s office and were told we could meet him any day after informing his office in advance.” She said the family had sought CCTV footage after Sangita’s death but the hospital told them their security cameras had not been working for the past two months.