Rahul Gandhi requests Kerala CM to set up safeguards against medical negligence affecting patients
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday urged Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to put in place safeguards against cases of gross medical negligence in the state.
The Wayanad MP also sought an effective grievance redressal system to deal with such matters so that victims do not have to take to the streets for justice.
The request was made by Gandhi in connection with the incident of forceps accidentally left inside a woman's stomach after surgery due to alleged medical negligence by the doctors of a government medical college in Kozhikode.
In a letter to Vijayan, the MP also urged the government to look into the demands of the woman -- Harshina K K -- and offer her adequate compensation "in light of the unique circumstances of the case" in addition to the Rs 2 lakh already given to her.
"I would also like to request you to kindly put in place adequate safeguards against such cases of gross medical negligence and establish effective grievance redressal systems so that victims are not forced to take to the streets for justice," Gandhi said in the letter.
The Congress leader said that Harshina, who belongs to his constituency, has been battling long-term health problems allegedly "due to the shocking medical negligence during a surgery she underwent at the Kozhikode Medical College in 2017".
He said that when he met Harshina and her family during his recent visit to Kerala and learnt of their plight, he was "deeply saddened".
"I was deeply saddened to learn about her tremendous pain and mental agony of living with the repercussions of the medical negligence for over five years. Her ordeal has also taken a huge emotional and financial toll on her family. She has submitted a representation to me," he said.
Gandhi also posted the letter along with a tweet on social media platform X.
He tweeted that the woman was living a miserable life since 2017 due to the alleged medical negligence and that he has sent a letter to the Kerala CM for sympathetically considering her demands and providing adequate compensation to her as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, the woman continued her protest outside the state secretariat demanding action against those accused of medical negligence and Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan joined her agitation.
The Kerala police in its probe into the incident had found alleged medical negligence on the part of the doctors of the government medical college.
The police launched the investigation following a complaint by the woman alleging that she faced health complications after undergoing a caesarean at the Government Medical College hospital here in 2017.
However, a medical board has reportedly rejected the findings of the police.
Harshina, the 30-year-old woman from Kozhikode, had filed the complaint seeking a probe in October last year.
The woman had undergone her third caesarean at the medical college in November 2017, with her earlier two C-sections performed in different private hospitals.
On September 17, 2022, the doctors of Kozhikode Medical College conducted a major surgery on Harshina, who was suffering from severe pain, to remove a mosquito artery forceps that had been in her stomach for the past five years. The mosquito artery forceps is a scissor-like piece of equipment used by surgeons to clamp bleeding vessels during surgeries.
The medical college officials had initially denied any negligence, citing her previous caesareans in private hospitals. However, the police's findings had prompted the authorities to constitute a medical board for further investigation.
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Not surprised EC gave itself clean chit: Cong slams poll panel on Haryana complaints
Warns ECI of legal action over 'condescending' tone
New Delhi, Nov 1: The Congress on Friday hit out at the Election Commission after it rejected allegations of "irregularities" in Haryana assembly polls, saying if the poll panel's goal is to "strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality", then it is doing a "remarkable job" at creating that impression.
The opposition party claimed that the EC's reply was written in a tone that is condescending and warned that if the poll panel persists with such language then it would have no choice but to seek legal recourse for getting such remarks expunged.
The Congress's response came days after the EC rejected allegations levelled by it over "irregularities" in assembly polls, saying the party was raising "the smoke of a generic doubt" about the credibility of an entire electoral outcome as done in the past.
The Congress said it is not surprised that the ECI has examined its complaints and "given itself a clean chit". The answer given to the question of the machines' fluctuating batteries seeks to confuse rather than clarify, it said.
"At any rate, the ECI reply is nothing more than a standard and generic set of bullets on how the machines function rather than a specific clarification on specific complaints. In short, while our complaints were specific the ECI response is generic and focused on diminishing the complaints and the petitioners," the Congress said.
In its letter to the EC signed by nine senior Congress leaders, including general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh, the party said, "We have carefully studied your response to our complaints. Not surprisingly, the ECI has given a clean chit to itself. We would normally have let it be at that. However, the tone and tenor of the ECI's response, the language used, and the allegations made against the INC compel us to submit the counter-response."
The Congress letter said that if the Commission grants a recognised national party a hearing or examines issues raised by them in good faith it is not an 'exception' or 'indulgence' but it is the performance of a duty required to be done.
"If the Commission is refusing to grant us a hearing or refusing to engage on certain complaints (which it has done in the past) then the law allows recourse to the higher courts' extraordinary jurisdiction to compel the ECI to discharge this function (as happened in 2019)," the letter said.
The Congress leaders, who had petitioned the EC alleging irregularities in the polls, said every reply from the EC now "seems to be laced with ad-hominem attacks" on either individual leaders or the party itself.
"The ECI's reply are written in a tone that is condescending. If the current ECI's goal is to strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality, then it is doing a remarkable job at creating that impression," the party said in its letter to the EC.
"Judges who write decisions do not attack or demonise the party raising the issues. However, if the ECI persists then we shall have no choice but to seek legal recourse to expunge such remarks," said the letter signed by Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupinder Hooda, Ajay Maken, Abhishek Singhvi, Uday Bhan, Partap Bajwa and Pawan Khera.
They also said that the "pattern" sought to be identified by the ECI in its reply is "disingenuous" as sometimes acting on complaints immediately is the key.
"If they are not redressed on the ground then they become redundant. And then the only remedy available is an Election Petition which is a lengthy process taking years to resolve. Thus, we approach the ECI with whatever information we have, and the ECI with the vast resources at its command, examines and reviews this information to see if the same is correct. Many times, the ECI has found our information to be correct. Other times, not so. But we do not name and shame the ECI for those moments after the Election is over," they said.
The Congress said if they were "bad faith actors", then they would never engage with the ECI to begin with. "We would focus on naming and shaming the Commission with examples from the ECI's own recent history which do not shroud it with glory," it said, adding that they would have never engaged in that case.
The Congress said it has sent over a hundred complaints against the prime minister and home minister, but "the ECI has taken action in precisely zero complaints, while calling our party president and former party president to account for their actions/speeches".
"We would point out how the ECI never published a dissent note, actively suppressing it instead, by a former Commissioner in this regard. We would point out that the ECI has almost always fought any move for transparency and increase in VVPAT verification numbers, with the same having to be ordered by the Supreme Court. We challenge the ECI to fact check the above since it finds the INC's misgivings to be based on phantoms," the Congress said.
In a strongly-worded letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the poll panel had said such "frivolous and unfounded" doubts have the potential of creating "turbulence" when crucial steps like polling and counting are in live play, a time when both public and political parties' anxiousness is peaking.
The BJP retained power in Haryana winning 48 of the 90 seats in the October 5 assembly polls.
