You are currently viewing No ICU duty records at Mumbai’s St George Hospital, reveals RTI

No ICU duty records at Mumbai’s St George Hospital, reveals RTI

Mumbai: A Right to Information (RTI) request for ICU shift-wise duty schedules at Mumbai’s St George Hospital has uncovered a startling administrative lapse, raising serious concerns about accountability in one of the city’s most critical medical departments.

Advocate Tushar Bhosale had requested routine rosters from 2024 onward, but the hospital revealed a complete absence of preserved records.

According to the Mumbai Mirror, “Although ICU duty schedules are prepared every 2 to 3 months, they are not preserved. There is no official record of which doctor was responsible for patient care on a given day. No archival rosters. No attendance logs. No trace”, revealed the RTI reply.

Also Read:Doctors demand strict implementation of AIIMS 12-Hour Day, 48-hour week duty roster

Advocate Bhosale highlighted that for an ICU where decisions can determine life or death represents more than administrative oversight. It points to a systemic blind spot that shields the department from scrutiny.
Without such records, the hospital cannot reliably determine who held clinical charge during critical hours, making internal audits, external reviews, or investigations dependent on recollection rather than documentation.

Under Section 4(1)(a) of the RTI Act, public authorities must maintain records in a way that makes them accessible. Medical regulatory frameworks — from the former Medical Council of India to today’s National Medical Commission — also require hospitals to document staff deployment and patient care responsibilities.

In addition to the RTI request, Advocate Bhosale filed a parallel complaint on the Aaple Sarkar portal, raising concerns about a suspected malpractice in the ICU attendance system. The Complaint alleged that entries were routed through a Registered Medical Practitioner acting as an intermediary, enabling doctors to mark their attendance even when they were not present.

The Medical Education Department subsequently forwarded the complaint to the hospital, forcing an examination that internal mechanisms failed to trigger.

“On November 10, hospital officer Deepak Lad confirmed that a committee would be constituted to investigate. A committee is a standard response — but its timing is telling. These lapses came to light not because the hospital caught them, but because an external complainant compelled the system to act,” confirmed an MEDD official, reports the Mumbai Mirror.

Also Read:6 Beed contractual doctors sacked for absenteeism

Dr Vinayak Sawardekar, Medical Superintendent of St George Hospital, defended the hospital’s practices. Speaking to the Mumbai Mirror, he said, “The ICU duty roster at St George’s Hospital is prepared by JJ Hospital and updated every 2 to 3 months. Only recent schedules are retained, and requests for detailed duty information — including those that may compromise staff safety — often amount to unnecessary targeting of our institution.”

Leave a Reply