No surgeries in nursing homes without ICU facility: SC

New Delhi: A ruling by the Supreme Court of India has ordered all the nursing homes of the country to perform operations only when they have the intensive care unit (ICU) facility.

Nursing Homes without the ICU facility cannot carry out surgeries on a patient as absence of an ICU posed danger to the patient's life.

The verdict came from a division bench comprising of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and UU Lalit on the petition that had been filed by Bijoy Kumar Sinha. Sinha lost his wife due to alleged medical negligence of Dr Biswanath Das who conducted a hysterectomy surgery at Kolkata's Ashutosh Nursing Home in Kolkata.

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Sinha, himself is no more. He died while fighting a lengthy 23-year-long litigation over his wife's death, in consumer forums. Hiscase was pursued to the SC by his son Soumik, to get justice for his mother.

Sinha had claimed that the nursing home did not have an ICU facility which led to his wife’s death.

The penalty:

The SC held Dr Biswanath Das guilty of medical negligence for deciding to perform surgery on Sinha's wife with an ICU facility and awarded a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to Soumik.