Jharkhand, September 3: A doctor in a government hospital in Jharkhand’s Ghatsila is set to be sacked on charges of prescribing condom to a 55-year-old woman for stomach pain in July this year, officials have said.
The dismissal order against Ghatsila sub-divisional hospital (GSDH) surgeon Dr Ashraf Badr came after a three-member probe committee formed by the East Singhbhum’s deputy commissioner (DC) confirmed the charges against him in its report. Dr Badr was on a one-year contract.
“The order to dismiss accused Dr Ashraf Badr has come from the state health department. We will put it in the meeting of the district health society as soon as the DC returns to the city,” East Singhbhum’s civil surgeon Dr Maheshwar Prasad said on Monday.
The deputy commissioner is the chairperson of the district health society and he is away in Sweden for an international seminar.
“He was dismissed from the service earlier also for several charges of misconduct but was reinstated only after a written undertaking of not repeating mistakes,” Dr Prasad said.
The woman had alleged in her complaint that Dr Badr had prescribed ‘Condom Nirodh’ for stomach pain on July 23 and asked her to visit the pharmacy when she consulted him at the hospital.
DC Ravishankar Shukla formed a three-member team comprising district surveillance officer Dr Sahir Pal Dr Prabhakar Bhagat and Dr Deepak Giri after the woman, a government employee, lodged a complaint against Dr Badr with the GSDH medical officer (MO) in-charge Dr Shankar Tudu on July 26.
The probe committee submitted its report on August 2 confirming the charges against Dr Badr.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) legislator from Baheragora Kunal Sarangi, who had raised the issue in the state assembly on July 26, welcomed the government’s decision to dismiss Dr Badr.
“I had raised the issue in the assembly and state health department has taken action after investigation indicted the accused doctor of misconduct. I thank CM (chief minister Raghubar Das), Speaker (Dinesh Oraon) and leader of the opposition (JMM working president Hemant Soren),” Sarangi said while speaking to reporters.
Sources said Dr Badr has been charged with misconduct in the past and was once dismissed as well.
“He would not conduct an autopsy of the dead bodies at Ghatsila post mortem house and refer all such cases to MGMMCH (Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College and Hospital) in Jamshedpur, causing many problems to GSDH authorities and families of the deceased. He was earlier also charged for teasing and flirting with a nurse,” a source said.
Dr Badr, however, said he will challenge the decision of his dismissal in the high court.
“The said probe is a farce and carried out to implicate me as part of a conspiracy. They have done after being bribed by private nursing house owners whose business was hit after I started regular gynaecology and general surgeries in GSDH. I had not written any such prescription and the registration slip put against me is fake,” said Dr Badr on Monday.
“I had filed general diary against the MO and a nurse in Ghatsila police station (PS) one and half month ago for conspiracy to implicate me in a false charge of teasing and flirting with the said nurse,” he said.
