Visakhapatnam: A three-member committee will verify records of all hospitals in Vizag to make sure that kidney transplants were done legitimately. The committee will begin its probe on Tuesday.
After the recent kidney racket in Sraddha Hospital, district collector K. Bhaskar ordered the same three-member committee that is probing into the Sraddha Hospital case to verify the records of all hospitals in the district. The committee will be on the job for the next 15 days and a report will be submitted to the collector based on the findings.
It is apprehended that there might be similar irregularities in some other hospitals too. The committee has identified 10 hospitals in the city.
King George Hospital Superintendent G. Arjuna, who is also a member of the committee said, “We will begin our exercise from Tuesday. We have identified that transplants were done in about 10 private hospitals in the city and all records will be verified thoroughly. On behalf of the committee, we have already asked all these hospitals to make available records of all kidney transplantation cases. A report will be submitted to the district collector in another 15 days.”
On Monday, district medical and health officer S. Tirupati Rao has issued a notice to the Sraddha Hospital management, asking them to respond on the committee report within 24 hours. There are a few in-patients in the hospital and all of them will be discharged or the patients may go to other hospitals as it will be sealed in a couple of days. Mr Tirupati Rao said, “We are following the procedure and have served a notice to the hospital. In the notice, we have asked them to respond in 24 hours. It will take another two more days to seize the hospital.”
The Special Investigation Team appointed by Vizag police commissioner Mahesh Chandra Laddha is busy probing the case. The SIT has so far been unable to trace hospital MD P. Pradeep who is absconding since the day the case broke, over 10 days ago.
