ZP receives Nirmal Gram Puraskar from President Patil

Bengaluru, Aug 6: No private hospital in Karnataka can turn away a patient without attending to him or her, irrespective of the Coronavirus status, an official has said.

"Private medical establishments shall not deny treatment and admission to any patient approaching the establishment irrespective of the fact that such patient may or may not be suffering from Covid-19," an official from the state Health and Family Welfare Department said on Wednesday.

Likewise, no private hospital can insist on a patient for a Covid-19 test report, said the official invoking the Disaster Management Act.

"The establishments also cannot insist for Covid test report," he said, directing all private hospitals to strictly abide by their responsibilities.

According to the department, it is the duty of every private hospital to provide first aid and take lifesaving steps when any patient approaches it.

"It is the duty of every private medical establishment to provide first aid and take lifesaving measures to stabilise the patient," he said.

The department also invoked statutes from Karnataka Medical Establishments Act 2017, under sections 11 and 11 (A) to drive home the message.

The directives assume significance at a time when several cases of private hospitals denying admissions and fleecing patients across the state have emerged.

"It has been noticed that some of the private hospitals are refusing treatment and admission to emergency patients, causing distress and this has resulted in complications, leading to death in certain cases," said the official.

The district authorities have been directed to take action on the erring hospitals as the department reiterated the responsibilities of private medical establishments.

Karwar, Aug 6: In a shocking incident, a 40-day-old girl child was murdered by her own parents in Sirsi town in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district.

The accused are Priyanka (21) and her husband Chandrashekhar Bhat (42), residents of Ramanakoppa in Sahasrahalli in Yellapur.

According to police, the couple did not want a girl child and hence threw it into a well. The couple was arrested by the police the very next day.

The incident came to light after the child’s maternal uncle, Abhishek Jagadeesh Singh Choudhari, a resident of Rajeev Nagar in Sirsi, lodge a complaint with Yellapur police station. 

He had claimed that his sister Priyanka’s baby had been kidnapped and subsequently killed. 

Priyanka had claimed that she woke up around 2.30am on August 2 to find that her baby, Tanushri, was not in her cradle. Her husband’s family subsequently started searching for the baby, which they found dead inside a well. 

Choudhari suspected that Tanushri had been kidnapped, and had been killed by her abductors to erase any evidence of their crime.

Uttara Kannada superintendent of police Shivaprakash Devaraju constituted a team to crack the crime, and the cops, who subjected the parents to an interrogation, found that they were the culprits.