NHRC summons Odisha health secretary for Covid care 'negligence'

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued conditional summons to the Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare of the government of Odisha to appear before it on June 30 for Covid care mismanagement and the lackadaisical attitude in submitting the requisite reports to the Commission so far.

The Apex human rights commission, NHRC, passed the order after acting on a petition filed by noted human rights activist and Supreme Court lawyer, Radhakanta Tripathy.

Earlier the Commission sought the Action Taken Report (ATR) from the concerned State department on the death of two patients due to the alleged medical negligence at the Dhenkanal District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) in Odisha.

According to the complaint, on September 14, 2020, one Susant Prusty suffered a heart attack, had tested Covid positive and collapsed on the DHH verandah, due to the alleged negligence of medical staff and was unattended by doctors, Tripathy alleged.

Earlier, on April 29, in a similar incident, a patient Kishor Chandra Sahoo of Dhenkanal town, who had respiratory problems, died due to the alleged delayed provision of oxygen and nebuliser by the hospital authorities to him, Tripathy said.

According to Tripathy, the war footing measures should have taken much earlier by the medical authorities to save lives. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the entire medical facilities have collapsed.

This is not an example of Dhenkanal District Hospital, only rather it is found in most of the hospitals including private hospitals, he further alleged.

He prayed that the NHRC should intervene in such types of sensitive and people's issues, so that many lives can be saved, Tripathy said.

Despite enough time granted by the Commission, to submit the ATR by the department of Health and Family Welfare, it has not been done so far, which also reflects the negligence of the department and violation of Human Rights Act, Tripathy said.

The Commission directed that if the Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Odisha, will not submit the requisite reports within June 23 of this year, the Commission will be constrained to invoke its coercive power under section 13 of the PHR Act, 1993 calling for the personal appearance of the authority concerned on 30 June before the Commission, Tripathy said.

( With inputs from ANI )