The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission on Wednesday fined the Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI) in southwest Kolkata Rs 2 lakh for conducting a CT scan of a patient’s brain 12 hours after a doctor advised the test.
A neurosurgeon arrived to examine the patient 14 hours after admission, the commission said.
Retired judge Ashim Banerjee, chairperson of the commission, said that though they could not precisely ascribe the 76-year-old man’s death to the delay, the hospital’s negligence could not be overlooked.
The man was admitted to the hospital in January. He had suffered a cerebral attack and also tested positive for Covid.
“He was shifted to the ICU from the Emergency. We have found from records that a doctor at the ICU had advised ‘repeat CT Brain’. But the CT scan was conducted 12-and-a-half hours later,” said Banerjee.
“A neurosurgeon came to examine the patient 14 or 15 hours after admission.”
The man was taken to another hospital before being wheeled into CMRI. He had undergone a CT scan at the previous hospital, too.
“We cannot pinpoint his death to the delay… but there was negligence on the part of CMRI that we could not overlook. We imposed a penalty of Rs 2 lakh on the hospital,” Banerjee said.
The neurosurgeon said he had gone to examine the patient as soon as he was informed by the hospital.
The hospital argued that it had set a protocol to not do CT scans of Covid patients with other patients but in the process the 76-year-old man’s scan got delayed, Banerjee said.
A CMRI official said: “We are looking into the matter.”