The Haryana government on Wednesday issued a notice to Gurugram’s Medanta Hospital, seeking a reply on the alleged violation of human dignity and privacy after an air hostess claimed that she was sexually assaulted by a staff member while on ventilator support.
The show cause notice to the medical director of the hospital was issue by Gurugram Civil Surgeon Dr Alka Singh on the basis of the instructions given by the Haryana Health and Family Welfare Minister Arti Singh Rao, a news agency PTI report said.
Officials said that the hospital has been directed to submits its reply within five working days.
A 46-year-old air hostess was allegedly sexually assaulted by a staff member of the hospital, an incident that came to light after she filed a complaint on April 14.
A technician of the Medanta Hospital was later arrested in connection with the sexual assault. The accused was identified as a 25-year-old Deepak, a resident of Badhuali village in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district.
The woman was admitted to the Gurugram hospital on April 5 after she fell sick following a swim in the pool of a hotel she was staying in. In her complaint, she alleged that on April 6, she was on ventilator when “some hospital staff sexually assaulted” her. She also claimed that two nurses were present in the room at the time of the incident, but did nothing to stop it.
Notably, the show cause notice to the hospital has said that as per the Charter of Patients’ Rights and Responsibilities under Section 6 of the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, confidentiality, human dignity and privacy have to be observed during treatment.
It further said that under Section 7 of the Act, the presence of a woman has to be ensured by the male doctor during the physical examination of a female patient.
“In this case, both the clauses have been violated by the establishment Through the notice, it is directed that the Medanta Hospital submit its reply within five working days under Section 40 of the CEA Act (2010),” the notice read.
The police arrested Deepak after four days of manhunt. A special investigation team (SIT) had been formed to investigate the case, wherein eight teams were involved and footages from around 800 CCTV cameras were scanned.