 "Cataract surgery")
The district administration on Tuesday suspended the chief medical officer after reports surfaced that 32 cataract patients were operated upon in torch light for want of steady electricity supply at a state-run facility here.
"Taking a serious note of the matter, the Uttar Pradesh government acted promptly and suspended CMO Rajendra Prasad," Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh told PTI.
He said incharge of the community health centre (CHC) at Nawabganj has also been removed.
A report has been sought by the state health department regarding the entire episode.
According to the visuals that went viral on social media, 32 cataract operations were done at the CHC in Nawabganj yesterday in torch light as there was no electricity or power back-up there.
The CMO earlier said the acting district magistrate has ordered a probe into the matter and the organisation entrusted with the task could be blacklisted, if found guilty.
Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh removes Chief Medical Officer of Unnao after eye operations of 32 patients in Community Health Center of Nawabganj were done under torchlight yesterday. The patients were later made to lie down on the floor, were referred by a Kanpur based NGO pic.twitter.com/Mt4VI5gNVT
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 26, 2017
Uttar Pradesh has attracted bad press for a series of 'medical disasters' in the recent past, with the death of more than 60 children, mostly infants, at a government hospital in Gorakhpur being the latest case in point.
A hospital in Farukhabad recorded 49 deaths -- 30 in neo-natal ICU and 19 during delivery -- between July 20 and August 21 this year, reportedly due to a lack of oxygen supply.
