The state clinical establishment regulatory commission on Monday asked two hospitals in Durgapur to pay Rs 10 lakh and Rs 5 lakh as compensation for not taking proper care of a pregnant patient who died after giving birth to a girl.

Mission Hospital, which was fined Rs 10 lakh, submitted a list of doctors who examined the woman. None was a gynaecologist, Ashim Banerjee, the chairperson of the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission, said.

Healthworld Hospitals, which was fined Rs 5 lakh, kept the woman in the Emergency ward for more than two hours though her condition had already deteriorated. No gynaecologist examined her. She was taken for surgery when the situation was beyond control, Banerjee said.

In September last year, the woman had visited her physician in Raniganj around 8am. The doctor said she needed an immediate C-section. “This doctor facilitated a conversation with a coordinator of Mission Hospital. The woman reached the hospital around 10am. The doctors there said it was a case of premature delivery,” Banerjee said at a news conference on Monday.

The woman was in the 33rd week of gestation.

Mission Hospital refused to admit the woman saying they did not have paediatric critical care beds, Banerjee said. She was in the hospital between 10.10am and 11.14am. “No gynaecologist examined the woman during this time. She was only given IV fluids,” Banerjee said.

The commission had heard the matter earlier but reserved its judgment. It had also asked the hospitals to submit the list of doctors who examined the woman that day.

“During the hearing, the hospital (Mission) said they did not have critical care beds for newborns and therefore refused admission, but they failed to give any satisfactory reply on why they had failed to treat the woman,” Banerjee said.

“We ordered them to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh.”

“We did not have any paediatric critical care bed empty at that time and we told this to the family as soon as they came. This was a case of premature delivery and the baby might have required critical care,” said Partha Pal, the medical director of Mission Hospital.

“We did not have the resources to handle this case and a hospital with the resources was only 10 minutes away. We referred the woman to the other hospital.”

The family then took the woman to Healthworld Hospitals, also in Durgapur.

The woman reached Healthworld around 11.45am. According to Banerjee, the woman’s family was told that no gynaecologist would examine her at the Emergency.

She underwent an ECG at 12.15am and reports were “abnormal”. “She was lying in the Emergency ward between her arrival and 2pm, when she was finally admitted. An ultrasound was done and that showed ruptured uterus. She was taken to the operating theatre at 3pm. The situation was already beyond control,” Banerjee said.

Around 3.30pm, the woman was shifted to ICU. She passed away at 6.15pm.

Healthworld Hospitals said they did an ultrasound test and conducted the surgery, Banerjee said.

Calls to Arunangshu Ganguly, the chairman of Healthworld Hospitals, went unanswered. He did not respond to WhatsApp and text messages.