Mumbai: It has been a year and half since detection officer Rajesh Salvi of the Khar police station died due to medical negligence, but his family is still waiting for the police to act.

His colleagues at the police station are yet to register a case against the hospital and the doctors concerned even after an expert committee said he died of "medical negligence". Rajesh died on March 30,2007,after he was operated upon for gall stones at RG Stone Hospital in Bandra. The Khar police registered a case of accidental death.

After his family alleged that he died of medical negligence, a three-member expert committee under Dr SD Nanandkar, head of the forensic department at Grant Medical College, Byculla, was formed to look into the allegation. The committee, in its report submitted to the police on October 10,said that Rajesh died due to "negligence". DNA has a copy of the report.

"The report came out on October 10. The police should have immediately registered a fresh FIR against the hospital and the doctors for medical negligence," Rajeshs father Prabhakar Salvi, 76, who retired as inspector, said. "They are yet to do it."

Rajesh first got admitted in Holy Family Hospital in Bandra, but later consulted doctors at RG Stone Hospital, since it is on the list of hospitals recommended under the Mumbai polices family health scheme. The doctors said he had to undergo a laparoscopic operation. He was operated upon on March 30,2007. Two hours after the operation, he had heart problems, Prabhakar said.

"He was taken to the nearby Mahavir hospital, which has ICCU (intensive cardiac care unit)," Rajeshs brother Vikas Salvi, a constable in a Navi Mumbai police station, said. "But he died around 10.50 pm."

The committee said it inspected the facilities at the hospital and reviewed the procedure adopted for the operation. "It is a clear case of negligence and clinical mismanagement," it concluded.

Asked about the delay in registering a fresh FIR, senior inspector Ajit Sawant of the Khar police station said, "The inquiry is on." Sawant said they are "going through" the report submitted by the expert committee.

Source : DNA