A day after three hospitals were vandalised by mobs for alleged medical negligence, the police invoked the Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions Act, 2008, as well as the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, to take action against the attackers for damaging property at Maa and Rajawadi hospitals.

According to police, a mob of around 40 to 50, including family members of 17-year-old Aarti Khaire and a few locals from Siddharth Nagar vandalised Maa Hospital and destroyed property worth around Rs 10,000. Khaire allegedly died soon after an on-duty nurse gave her an injection.

In Khaire’s case, the postmortem report is going to be the prime evidence, said the police. Chief medical superintendent of peripheral hospitals, Dr Seema Malik, who is heading the inquiry committe, said she would submit the report in a week’s time. Asked why a nurse had administered the injection to Khaire, Dr Malik said, “It is a usual practice. Nurses can administer drugs under the supervision of doctors.”

Dr Malik, however, said it has to be inquired why Khaire was discharged before she was fully cured. “Khaire’s viscera has been sent for chemical analysis,” she said.

Dr WB Tayade of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research said he had asked JJ Hospital’s dean Dr R Inamdar to conduct an inquiry into the incident that happened at GT Hospital on Monday.

Under the 2008 Act, any one who causes damage to any hospital property would be fined twice the value of the property that he or she has destroyed.

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