Raipur: Over two years after botched-up cataract surgeries led to 14 people losing vision in Chhattisgarh's Mahasamund district, the state health department has decided to ban the trust which had organised the eye camp from holding such activities for three years. The department has also decided to recover Rs 19.5 lakh from Shree Krishna Charitable Trust, paid as compensation by the government to the victims of botched procedures. Action has also been proposed against the doctors, medical staff and drug agencies found guilty in this regard. As many as 14 people in the camp held at a community health centre in Mahasamund's Bagbahra town on December 9-10, 2012, had lost vision in one eye.
“I have decided to take these actions after examining the case,” state health services director R Prasanna told PTI. A ban will be imposed on Shree Krishna Charitable Trust for three years, he said.
After the incident had came to light, Rs one lakh each was given as medical relief by the government to 16 people affected with post-surgery infection. Besides, Rs 3.5 lakh was spent on their treatment.
Mahasamund's Chief Medical and Health Officer (CHMO) will be asked to recover Rs 19.5 lakh from the trust. The CMHO will also be asked to lodge an FIR against Lakshmi Medical Store, Bagbahra and Bajranj Medical Store, Raipur (which supplied drugs at the eye camp) for sale of non-standardised medicines, he said.
A letter will also be written to Chhattisgarh Medical Council for cancelling medical treatment license of two eye surgeons of Raipur's Vinayak Eye Hospital who had performed surgeries at the camp, Prasanna said.
It was also proposed to intimate Chhattisgarh Medical Services Corporation to blacklist the guilty drug manufacturers whose products were supplied at the camp. Health Minister Amar Agrawal had in January 2013 stated in Chhattisgarh Assembly that negligence in following a standard protocol for cataract operation was found in the Bagbahra incident.
