Patient falls unattended in SCB ICU: Probe launched amid outrage over negligence

Cuttack: Health authorities on Tuesday ordered a probe after a video showing alleged mismanagement inside the medicine ICU of SCB Medical College and Hospital here was widely shared on social media.Pending inquiry, SCB authorities withdrew Subhendu Acharya as the ICU’s in-charge professor and transferred three nursing officers — Bhagyabati Swain, Arijit Mallick and Sanghamitra Panda — to other critical areas. Jayant Panda was given charge of the medicine ICU.The action follows an incident on Sunday when a patient allegedly fell from an ICU bed after being left unattended. The video, which surfaced on social media on Tuesday, sparked outrage and raised serious questions over patient safety and staff accountability inside the hospital’s high-dependency unit with a 40-bed ICU.Though the exact condition of the patient after the fall was not immediately disclosed, the visuals led to swift intervention by the hospital administration and health department.Hospital superintendent Gautam Satpathy told TOI, “Any lapse in critical care areas like ICU will be viewed seriously. We have taken immediate administrative action and strengthened supervision to ensure such incidents do not occur in future.”

He added that internal monitoring mechanisms are being reinforced and duty rosters reviewed to ensure round-the-clock availability of medical and nursing staff in all critical care units.“We admit our loved ones to the ICU trusting that they will be monitored every moment. Witnessing a critical patient fall from the bed because no staff was present is shocking and frightening. Such negligence puts lives at risk,” said a patient’s attendant, Suraj Pradhan.