Ahmedabad, Feb 7 (PTI) The state government told the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday that it is in the process of amending the Gujarat Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act-2021, making registration mandatory for all kinds of medical establishments irrespective of their size.
The court on January 17 took suo motu cognisance of a media report about 17 persons complaining of partial or complete loss of vision after undergoing cataract surgery at a trust-run hospital in Ahmedabad district last month, calling the incident āglaring and deplorableā.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee was hearing a suo motu PIL on the incident.
Advocate General Kamal Trivedi told the court that while the said act currently makes it mandatory for establishments having 50 or more number of beds to register with the state health and family welfare department, the draft amendment proposed in December 2023 requires all medical units irrespective of the number of beds to be registered.
He said the last month’s incident of patients suffering from loss of vision after cataract surgery occurred even as the government was in the process of coming out with a draft notification inviting objections to the amendment proposed.
“There is a process under which we had to come out with a draft notification inviting objections to the proposed amendment. That was in the process when in the meantime on January 10 this incident took place,” he said.
The court posted the matter for hearing after two weeks.
The HC last month said, “The incident requires a thorough and sincere investigation for fixing the liability of the erring persons and also to pay suitable compensation to the victims who have ultimately lost their vision.” As many as 17 persons complained of partial or complete loss of vision after undergoing cataract surgery at a trust-run hospital in Ahmedabad, prompting authorities to order a probe into it.
The Gujarat health and family welfare department formed a nine-member expert committee to conduct an inquiry and also asked the eye hospital at Mandal village not to perform any more cataract surgeries until further orders.
The matter came to light after five persons who underwent surgery at the Ramanand Eye Hospital at Mandal on January 10 were referred to the ophthalmology department at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital on Monday for treatment, he said.
Officials said that expert doctors were roped in at Ahmedabad and the Mandal-based hospitals to treat the affected patients and conduct an inquiry. PTI KA GK
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