Calcutta: The regulatory commission for private health care has said its investigations have yielded reports that concluded two employees of BM Birla Heart Research Centre in Alipore were not qualified to conduct echocardiography.
The panel asked the hospital to pay Rs 20 lakh to the family of an elderly cardiac patient who died last year. Both technicians had conducted echocardiography on her.
The commission said that at 8.05pm on May 7, 2017, an echocardiography was done on Arati Pal with a portable machine and the findings were interpreted by technician Chaitali Kundu.
Based on that report, the doctor treating Arati deduced her cardiac condition to be stable and decided to have her shifted to CMRI, adjacent to BM Birla Heart Research Centre and run by the same group, for a different problem.
According to the complaint filed by Arati's son Koushik Pal, she was diagnosed with sepsis on May 7. Her condition deteriorated that evening and she died the next day.
Kundu studied commerce in higher secondary and later did "an electro cardiography technique course" from the Society for the School of Medical Technology in Taltala. "Neither the institute nor the paramedical course conducted by them is recognised by the state medical faculty," the West Bengal Clinical Establishments Regulatory Commission said.
During the course of its investigation, the commission also found Ashok Giri, head of the non-invasive intervention division, unqualified for echocardiography. He had conducted the test on Arati on May 3.
Giri has a postgraduate diploma in clinical cardiology from Indira Gandhi National Open University. He also has an "MD degree" from a medical institute in Russia, which the commission said was "equivalent to an MBBS".
"The commission received two separate written communications from the Medical Council of India and the West Bengal Medical Council to the effect that the postgraduate diploma in clinical cardiology from Indira Gandhi National Open University is not a recognised postgraduate medical qualification and, therefore, the holder of such a diploma is not entitled to practise the speciality concerned," the regulatory panel said.
Arati had been admitted to BM Birla Heart Research Centre on May 3 with acute chest pain, respiratory distress and fever.
She was diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome, in which the heart muscles cannot function properly because of decreased blood flow.
The hospital has been asked to pay Rs 20 lakh in compensation to Arati's family within 15 days. "We have received the order and will take the necessary steps after going through it in detail," said an official at BM Birla Heart Research Centre.
