Chandkheda hospital’s sonography device sealed

AHMEDABAD: Officials of the health department of

Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation

(

AMC

) on Monday, sealed a sonography machine at

Vijaya Nursing Home

in the Chandkheda area of the city, for alleged violations of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques (PCPNDT) Act. Civic authorities had received intimation from the nursing home, about the absence of their radiologist, about ten days after the concerned person went on leave. This raised the civic body’s suspicions.

Bhavin Solanki

, the AMC’s medical officer for health, said, “Whenever a radiologist at a nursing home goes on leave, they are supposed to inform civic authorities about this. We received intimation from this nursing home in Chandkheda on Monday, saying that their radiologist was on leave from May 13-21, without stating who would be in charge.”

“Our teams raided the nursing home on Tuesday and found several discrepancies in their papers. There was no signatures on several sonography forms, while there was a signature-name mismatch on others. We learnt that malpractices were going on and pre-natal sex determination tests, which are illegal, were possibly being conducted. We immediately issued a notice to the nursing home and sealed their sonography machine,” added Solanki.

This is the third case of PCPNDT Act violations uncovered by AMC’s health department. The other two were reported earlier this year at nursing homes in

Khadia

and Naroda areas.