Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Court raps TN govt for not compensating Hepatitis-C patients

Chennai: In a somersault of sorts, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to withdraw its commitment to the Madras high court that it would pay 5 lakh as compensation to each of 16 kidney patients who contracted Hepatitis-C at government Stanley hospital while undergoing dialysis.

However, irked at this reversal, the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh has summoned the officials who took the latest decision contrary to the earlier commitment to the court.

"We call for all the records duly flagged to be produced in this behalf, and the person taking a decision not to honour the commitment made in the court on September 21, 2015 should personally remain present on the next date of hearing," said the judges, posting the case to April 27, 2016 for further proceedings.

"On the submission of the government pleader we found that he is seeking to withdraw what was stated before on September 21, 2015 when he had unequivocally stated that while compensation of 3 lakh had been disbursed, a further sum of 2 lakh per head had been sanctioned, which would be shortly disbursed. It appears that thereafter there has been a reversal of this decision," remarked the first bench.

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It is most ridiculous stand of the TN Govt. to reverse its commitment and it is the bounden duty of the govt. to honour the written commitment furnished to the court. It seems that in Tamil Nadu Gove... Read MoreSankaran Krishnan

The PIL filed by Jayaram Venkatesan of Mylapore alleged that a total of 16 patients with kidney-related ailments suffered Hepatitis-C at Stanley hospital while undergoing periodical dialysis. Citing an internal inquiry into the incident, he said it had been admitted that most of the 16 patients had contracted the infection at the hospital. The probe 'curiously exonerated the hospital authorities of negligence,' he said.

One Rajini died in October 2014 due to the infection, he said, adding that since the hospital did not have a dedicated facility to handle dialysis patients with Hepatitis-C, they were not given further treatment or dialysis as authorities did not want to risk a spread. Only after protests erupted in support of the infected people that the hospital took them back for treatment, it said. Most of the infected patients are young and are sole breadwinners of their families, the PIL said, adding that dialysis patients with Hepatitis-C have a shorter life span than dialysis patients without it. "Therefore, it is necessary to compensate all these patients ," it said.

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