Bathinda: An unidentified patient died after an ambulance driver abandoned him along with another patient at a secluded place after Mansa civil hospital’s medical officers allegedly discharged both of them forcibly.

The Mansa civil surgeon has marked an investigation into the incident.

Two migrant labourers, suffering from hepatitis, were admitted to Mansa civil hospital, but some medical officers at the hospital called an ambulance driver late on Wednesday and directed him to drop the two patients in a secluded area, from where their relatives would pick them up.

The medical officers paid the ambulance driver Rs 400 for dropping off the two patients.
The medical officers, in the patients’ discharge slip, allegedly wrote that two of them had left the hospital of their own volition. It was not clear why the doctors had forcibly discharged the two patients.

One of the two patients died after the ambulance driver left both of them in the secluded area. Some passers-by took the dead man and the other patient back to the civil hospital later in the night.

Defending himself, the ambulance driver said he was not aware that the two patients had been forcibly discharged from the hospital and that no one would pick them up from the secluded area where he left them.

The Mansa civil surgeon, Dr Ranjit Singh Rai, told that he had gone to Chandigarh on Wednesday and got to know about the incident late at night from a social media post.
“I have marked an investigation to the SMO, Dr Baljit Kaur, who has formed a panel of three doctors to investigate the issue. The report is expected by Friday and action will be taken as per the findings of the report,” Dr Rai said and added that identity of the two patients and the medical officers involved is being ascertained.

Mansa senior superintendent of police (SSP) Nanak Singh confirmed that an unidentified person, who was earlier admitted to the Mansa civil hospital, had died and the police were looking into the matter.