Serve notices on Union Health Secy, hospital: HC

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 10

Taking cognisance of a report published in The Tribune regarding gross irregularities found at the blood bank of a local hospital, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the issuance of notices within a week to the Union Department of Health and Family Welfare as well as Gulab Devi Hospital, Jalandhar. The HC has made both hospital and the Secretary to Government of India, Department of Health and Family Welfare, a party in the PIL filed on the issue.

The court had also passed an order admitting a PIL on the issue – filed on the basis of the same news report – on August 31, 2018. The ruling has been issued by a two-member Bench comprising Chief, Justice, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Kirshna Murari, and Judge Arun Palli.

Serious discrepancies and mislabelling of blood were found at the blood bank of Gulab Devi Hospital, here, in August this year.

A report published in these columns on August 5, 2018, titled “Gross irregularities at blood bank” had reported that owing to discrepancies, five persons were booked by the Jalandhar police.

The report had stated that the Zonal Licensing Authority had seized 44 blood units from the bank – from each of which, two or more donors were provided blood. The units were also found to have improper labelling and vital details such as the expiry date of the blood, the date the donor was bled, among other details were missing from the bank. The action had been initiated by the drug authorities in the district on the evening of August 3 after a complaint was made by an NGO, Hindustan Welfare Blood Donors Club, Phagwara, along with four or five other blood donation NGOs of the region.

In its ruling today, the court has stated, “Since the newspaper report contained allegations against the Gulab Devi Hospital, where the blood bank was being run, we deem it fit that the hospital be impleaded as a party to the petition as also the Union of India, through Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi, and notices be issued to them. The office is directed to take necessary steps for issuing notices within a week.”

The next hearing in the case will be on January 28, 2019.