Court raps Mumbai hospital for insensitivity in attending to pregnant woman

The Bombay High Court on Friday criticised the medical board of government-run JJ Hospital in Mumbai for making a woman in her 27th week of pregnancy travel all the way from Kalyan and for not conducting a primary check-up on her.
The bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and Dr Neela Gokhale, however, did not take any action against the doctors after they tendered an unconditional apology but said, “We expect the medical board to act with more sensitivity and responsibility in future cases”.
The bench was hearing a petition filed by a woman who, while undergoing routine check-up, noticed that the foetus suffered from some abnormalities.
The woman had first been examined by the medical board established under the Medial Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, JJ Hospital, in South Mumbai, and they had prepared a report dated October 1, 2024, noting anomalies in the foetus associated with increased risk of mortality and morbidity.
The hospital’s medical board gave an opinion to medically terminate the pregnancy.
After the report, the woman went to King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital, where she was told that the procedure could not be undertaken unless there is an order from the court as pregnancy above 24 weeks required legal direction before the MTP could be undertaken.
Consequently, the woman approached the court. As mandated under the law, the court, on October 7, passed an order directing the JJ Hospital to constitute a medical board and check the woman’s health.
Advocate Manisha Jagtap, representing the woman, who was in her advanced stage of pregnancy, submitted that she had travelled from Kalyan, which is more than 50 kilometres from JJ Hospital, and reached there on October 9 for the check-up.
Refusing to return without a check-up, the woman stayed in the hospital corridor through the night for a check-up the next day. However, a check-up wasn’t done on October 10 either, Jagtap stated.
During the court hearing on October 10, the medical board handed over the same medical report that they had drawn on October 1. This perturbed the bench, which said that the actions of the medical board had caused immense hardship to the petitioner, who was in the 27th week of pregnancy.
“We express our extreme displeasure at the conduct of the medical board and the attitude shown by it and particularly at the insensitivity in handling the situation”, said the bench.
The bench noted that the medical board’s justification was that there could not have been much difference in the anomalies of the foetus in one-and-half weeks and, therefore, the petitioner was not examined by it.
The bench further observed, “This inaction on the part of the medical board is in direct defiance of the order passed by this court. Besides the anomalies in the foetus, the medical board completely overlooked the petitioner’s present condition and also failed to examine her health, which aspect was required to be considered, and opinion was also required to be given whether she was fit to undergo the procedure of medical termination of pregnancy at this stage.”
The court ordered the medical board to conduct a fresh medical examination of the petitioner. It directed the board to give a report not only on the anomaly of the foetus but also about the condition of the petitioner’s health, so that the court could take a call on the termination of her pregnancy based on it.
“Considering the prior conduct of the medical board, specific importance and priority should be given to the petitioner”, the court added.
On the court’s direction, the medical board examined the woman on Friday and handed over its report to the court. In its fresh report, the board opined that the woman was fit to undergo the procedure.
The bench, on October 11, granted permission for the woman to undergo MTP.