Dengue crisis: Delhi govt issues notice to 14 doctors

New Delhi: The Delhi government has issued show cause notices to 14 doctors in seven government hospitals for dereliction of duty in dealing with the dengue crisis, as the national capital faced the worst outbreak of the vector-borne disease in the last six years.

According to official sources, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain along with the senior officials from the health department recently visited several hospitals during late night and wee hours to check their preparedness in dealing with dengue patients.

"The Health Minister, Satyendar Jain, visited the hospitals between 11.45 PM and 6 AM to check their preparedness in terms of dealing with the dengue patients and found some doctors sleeping while being on duty while some were found littering in other wards when they should have been stationed at a particular ward," an official of the health department said.

"Fourteen doctors from seven hospitals have been issued show cause notices in this context," the official said, adding that some staff nurses also have been issued notices for dereliction of duty.

The department is now awaiting the reply to their notices after which they may consider taking action against the concerned doctors and nurses, the official said.

The hospitals include Aruna Asaf Ali Government Hospital, Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital, Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital, Acharya Shree Bhikshu Hospital, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Hospital, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital and Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hosiptal.

Delhi is grappling with worst outbreak of the dengue in the last six years.

An update of the dengue report by the civic administration has taken the official death toll up to 25 while 37 dengue deaths have been reported by the hospitals.

With 6,486 cases of dengue recorded this year, 2015 has also surpassed the total in this regard for 2010, which had seen 6,259 cases.