Bengaluru: Members of the expert committee on preventing sexual violence against women and children visited the government hospital in Anekal from where the body of a three-year-old boy had to be taken on a motorcycle on Sunday, as the ambulance wasn’t available.
The post-mortem of the child, who was mowed down by a bike near Karpur Gate in Anekal taluk on Sunday night, was conducted at the hospital, said the police inspector.
V S Ugrappa, chairperson of the committee, told DH action would be taken against the taluk medical officer for the lapses. “Health Department officials will take a call on whether to suspend or transfer him,” he said. The district administration has been asked to give the boy’s family Rs 5,000 for his last rites. The local MLA would give the family Rs 25,000, Ugrappa said.
He said when members of the committee visited the child’s family, they found they sold scrap for a living.
“The boy’s father said he breathed his last soon after being taken to the hospital. He said neither the family asked for an ambulance to take the body back home nor did the hospital offer them one. They were mostly unaware they could get one, ” Ugrappa said.
Pointing out several lapses in the 100-bed hospital, he said even though the total sanctioned posts are 80, only 39 were reporting to work.
“There are eight doctors on duty, but only one works in the night shift,” he said. The committee found that the doctor on duty on Sunday night was in her last term of pregnancy and hence, could not be questioned.
The hospital did not have CCTV cameras or security guards round the clock.
DH News Service.
India Tribune, as an English weekly newspaper, was launched in 1977 in Chicago by its publisher Prashant Shah with a lofty ideal to serve the Asian Indian community in the USA. Over the years, it has grown with all vigor, and now it is being published in three editions – Chicago, New York and Atlanta. India Tribune, a journal of its kind for the family in the USA, has been a household name for many Indians for over three decades with each issue commanding a readership of over 125,000.
