Siliguri, Dec. 4: The Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Siliguri, today passed an order directing a leading diagnostic centre on Bidhan Road to pay a patient a compensation of Rs 5,000 for giving a wrong and misleading ultrasonography report.

A two-member bench of the forum also directed the Apollo Clinic to “discontinue the use of the name ‘Apollo’ from the date of the order (that is today).” But it added that the clinic could be run “in the name that it had obtained a licence from the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Darjeeling, on 5.4.05 under the West Bengal Clinics and Establishments (Amendment) Act, 1998”.

Since the clinic is registered with the CMOH as Sanjeevani Health and Hygiene Pvt. Ltd, the forum’s order said the diagnostic centre, which does not have any licence from either Apollo Hospitals in Chennai or from the CMOH to run it as an Apollo clinic, was using the name “Apollo” to attract the people of the area. The ruling follows a complaint lodged by North Bengal Consumer Society and the patient, Sanjay Golenchha of New Milanpally area here. On the advice of his family physician, Golenchha had gone to the Apollo Clinic for a USG following a sudden pain in his abdomen on December 26, 2005.

The complaint stated that the “high-class investigation centre” took a fee of Rs 550 and on the same day issued the report, signed by Sajjid Hussein, a consultant radiologist. He had detected a stone in the kidney and advised immediate operation at Apollo Hospital in Chennai, the order said.

But a second and a third opinion two days later at two other clinics here did not reveal the presence of any stones. The complainants then lodged a case with the consumer forum, seeking Rs 1 lakh for deficiency of service, unfair trade practice and mental agony for the patient and his family.

The order, however, has awarded Rs 5,000 to the complainant, as the grounds for mental agony appeared misplaced in the absence of the patient not showing the USG report to his family physician and seeking his advice. Besides, the radiologist had not prescribed immediate operation in writing.

Contacted, a representative of the clinic’s management said they had not yet received the order. “We will decide on an appeal once we have gone through it.” He also claimed that they were a franchisee of Apollo Health and Lifestyle, a subsidiary of Apollo Hospitals.

However, an affidavit sent by Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, denied that the Siliguri clinic was its licensee.