AIIMS Patna in a fix after allegations of negligence

The All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences-Patna is in the eye of the storm after a Jamui resident alleged that his nine-year-old daughter died as she was refused treatment due to delay in the registration process. He was forced to carry her body on his shoulders as he could not afford an ambulance and was neither offered one by the hospital.

Ram Balak, a daily wage labourer hailing from Jamui district, said his daughter Roshan Kumari was suffering from fever and stomach pain for the past few days and he came to Patna for her better treatment.

However, when he reached AIIMS-Patna with his wife and daughter, he was asked to register at the out-patient department counter first, following which the treatment of the child would commence. The queue at the counter was long and his daughter's health was deteriorating.

"As I was not aware of the formalities, it took me some time to reach the designated area. My pleas to skip the queue fell on deaf ears and the hospital staff refused when I asked them to start the treatment while I was in the registration queue," he said. Balak said his daughter's condition kept deteriorating and she breathed her last, even before he reached the counter.

What added to his agony was that he had to carry his daughter's body for around two kilometres on his shoulder as he did not have enough money on him to hire an ambulance.

The AIIMS-Patna administration initially denied any such incident, but later said it will look into what had actually happened and then comment on it. The Opposition RJD, however, has launched an attack on the state government over "deteriorating health infrastructure in the state" and asked it to probe the incident.

The premier medical institute was recently in news when Union minister of statet for health Ashwini Choubey had said it will be fully functional by 2018, after his controversial remark that Bihar residents were coming to AIIMS-Delhi even for minor ailments and increasing the crowd there.