K JAYARAMAN Vs. POONA HOSPITAL AND RESEARCH CENTRE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ACCORDING to the complainant, he developed symptoms of heart attack on 21st of September, 1990. His personal physician, Dr. P. V. Joshi after consultation, on that day, advised him at 12.30 p.m. admission in the Intensive Care Unit of the respondent Poona Hospital & Research Centre. According to the complainant, Dr. Joshi informed on phone the hospital authorities, where he is also a Consultant Physician, that this was an emergency case for admission to the ICCU and that the hospital authorities confirmed the availability of the room over the phone. The complainant accompanied by his wife reached the hospital at 14.00 hrs for admission to the ICCU and treatment started only after 15.15 hrs.

(2.) ACCORDING to the complainant the delay in treating him exposed him to heavy risks and could have caused other serious complications and or even death, especially keeping in view that he is a diabetic.

(3.) AFTER recovery, he was shifted to the private ward and he has also a catalogue of 13 heads of complaint about the facilities and services rendered to the patient in the private ward. To exemplify; the emergency call bell was not working; the ceiling fan was not functioning properly, its regulator was defective, geyser was not working, the bed linen was torn, the bed linen was not changed without his asking to do so, the hospital did not provide the necessary wherewithal for the sponge both advised for him by the doctor, the food which served was not properly protected against contamination; the B.P. appratus and the E.G.C. machine were not working on 27th September, 1990 etc.