Madras High Court quashes order suspending hospital licence

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has quashed the order suspending the licence of BP Jain Hospital, a unit of Sankara Health Education and Charitable Trust in Chennai, for performing bariatric surgery on a youth for morbid obesity which led to his death.

While it was an unfortunate incident, suspension or temporary cancellation of registration was an extreme measure for such an isolated incident, wrote Justice GR Swaminathan while granting the hospital’s application.

The facility has been in existence for 23 years and charges only 100 rupees for outpatient treatment. Almost two million patients have been treated there outpatients, 45,000 have been treated as inpatients and no fewer than 8,500 operations have been successfully performed, the judgment states.

“We are witnessing an era of commercialization of medical care. In such a situation, the existence of hospitals that do not charge much is extremely necessary and the role of these institutions must be recognized,” the judge wrote.

As a result of the order suspending the hospital’s license, the sufferers will be the patients, so the authority must weigh the competing considerations, the judge wrote

Since the teenager’s death attracted a great deal of media attention, the government’s suspension was a hasty and completely disproportionate reaction, the ruling states.

Government counsel K Tippu Sultan submitted that through a proviso in Section 5(2) of the Hospitals and Clinics Regulation Act, 1997, the competent authority can suspend the registration of any clinic without prior notice.

The hospital cannot challenge the impugned order on the ground that the principles of natural justice have been violated, the government lawyer added.

However, the judge allowed the hospital to cease operations by lifting the license suspension order.

On April 21, the deceased young S. Hemachandran was admitted to BP Jain Hospital, Pammal, Chennai, on the advice of Dr. T. Perungo to undergo bariatric surgery for his morbid obesity.

Due to improper service delivery, Hemachandran developed complications and was shifted to another private hospital in Chromepet, where he died on April 23.

On May 5, the Deputy Director of Health Services, Chengalpattu, conducted a surprise inspection at BP Jain Hospital and found several deficiencies, hence the order was issued to temporarily withdraw the license of the hospital.