New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has instructed the Union Health Ministry to conduct an audit of cath labs across India following its enquiry into the case of a fake cardiologist performing cardiac procedures in Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, that resulted in at least seven deaths, ThePrint has learnt.
It is estimated that there are about 1,600 cardiac catheterisation laboratories or cath labs—specialised medical facilities equipped to perform minimally invasive procedures to diagnose and treat heart conditions—across 140 cities in India. Moreover, nearly 220 new such labs are being added in India annually.
In April this year, MP Police had arrested a man named Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav who impersonated Dr N. John Camm, a well-known cardiologist in London, by faking documents as a interventional cardiologist and performing procedures such as angiography and angioplasty that led to several fatalities at a Mission Hospital in Damoh.
Yadav had previously worked with several hospitals in different states as a doctor—including the Apollo hospital in Raipur—and his name had figured in a list of doctors whose registrations were suspended by the Medical Council of India several years earlier following complaints of fraud.
It is not yet clear how Yadav managed to establish himself as a doctor and received a licence in medicine to practise.
The 8-page NHRC report, a copy of which is with ThePrint, says that not only did Yadav not have the specialisation to work as a cardiologist, there was no record of even his MBBS degree.
According to local media reports, the police had found that his documents showed Yadav had studied MBBS at the North Bengal Medical College, Darjeeling, but the Commission says that in response to its notice, the College said Yadav had not studied there.
In MP, the Commission has said, qualifications of all doctors working in cath labs, should be verified.
The NHRC report has also pointed out massive irregularities in the implementation of Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) at the Mission hospital, underlining that the patients were forced to pay for procedures despite the hospital also raising claims for these with the government.
In view of these findings, the Commission has also asked the health ministry to take steps to prevent misuse of the central health insurance scheme.
Under AB-PMJAY, over 50 crore Indians, from low socio-economic strata, are offered cashless hospitalisation worth up to Rs 5 lakh a year through a network of empanelled hospitals.
The report says that the Damoh Mission Hospital management allegedly misrepresented Yadav’s qualification and presented questionable documents to both public and relevant authorities to show him as an interventional cardiologist.
‘This shows that the hospital also has completely failed to comply with medical regulations, patient safety standards and ethical practice,” the Commission has said.
It has asked the state police to file an FIR against the hospital management on charges related to culpable homicide, fraud, cheating and forgery.
NHRC, in its letter to the Union Health Secretary, MP Chief Secretary and the state police head on July 1, has asked for an action taken report within the next four weeks.
“Our enquiry has unearthed massive systemic issues that led to loss of lives of hapless patients and accordingly we want action at multiple levels to ensure that such episodes are not repeated in future,” NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo told ThePrint.
Also read: Damoh deaths row: MP’s ‘fake UK doctor’ was banned by MCI for misconduct in 2014
Illegal authorisation for cath lab
The Commission during its enquiry found that while one qualified cardiologist worked as a consultant at the hospital and visited once every month to see OPD patients, he denied having given consent to establish a cath lab at the centre. Yet, the lab was registered in his name, found the NHRC team.
“This clearly shows the fraudulent activities continuously taking place in the Mission Hospital,” the report says.
The report goes on to mention that no inspection of the lab was carried out by the district health officer, Damoh, or his team, to verify the degree and registration of the doctor and the establishment.
Noting that there has been negligence and dereliction of duty on the part of the district health officer, the report has instructed the MP chief secretary to carry out appropriate departmental action against him.
Massive frauds under Ayushman Bharat
Multiple family members of patients undergoing treatment at the faculty informed the team that they had paid up to Rs 2.80 lakh for procedures such as angioplasty at the hospital.
Under the health insurance scheme, empanelled hospitals are supposed to provide services free of cost to the patient while the government reimburses the cost to the hospital at specified rates.
The report noted that the malpractices by the hospital defeated the health insurance scheme’s core objective of providing accessible and affordable healthcare to economically vulnerable individuals.
The NHRC team also found that the hospital was collecting funds from abroad in the name of treating poor patients while indulging in malpractices and forcing patients to pay.
These transactions should be thoroughly investigated, the Commission has instructed the state government, also directing it to examine the operation and running of the hospital in detail.
The Commission has said that the next of kin of all 7 patients who died following surgeries by Yadav should be paid Rs 10 lakh each as compensation, which can be recovered from the hospital management or the fake doctor.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: Warned imposter, decided against pursuing case legally, says British cardiologist Dr John Camm