Pune car crash: Will overhaul civil hospital system to make it foolproof, says minister Mushrif

Mumbai: Maharashtra minister Hasan Mushrif has promised to make the system at civil hospitals foolproof, an assurance coming in the wake of alleged manipulation of blood samples at Pune’s Sassoon hospital in connection with the Porsche crash.

The medical education minister was speaking to reporters in Mumbai on Thursday.

Police have arrested Dr Ajay Taware, then head of the department of forensic medicine at Sassoon, medical officer Dr Shrihari Halnor and staffer Atul Ghatkamble for allegedly swapping the blood samples of the teenager, who police say was driving the Porsche.

According to police, the minor driver was drunk at the time of the incident which resulted in the death of two IT professionals in the early hours of May 19 in Kalyani Nagar area of Pune city.

“The police found that Dr Ajay Taware was on leave on the night of the Pune accident and he got a call from someone. He accepted Rs 3 lakh, called Dr Halnor to manipulate the blood samples. This was absolutely wrong,” Mushrif said.

Police had told a court here on Thursday that the juvenile's blood sample was replaced with that of a woman, to show that he was not drunk at the time of the accident. Sources in the Maharashtra public health department claimed that she was his mother.

“We need to introduce some changes and take strict action to stop the outsider interference in the functioning of hospitals. We will overhaul the system and make it foolproof,” he said.

The department will also teach a "lesson of his lifetime" to Taware, he said.

Asked about Sassoon General Hospital dean Dr Vinayak Kale being sent on leave, the minister said, “The report of the committee (set up to probe the blood sample episode) stated that Dr Kale did not perform his duties properly. The decision to send him on leave has nothing to do with him taking my name during a press conference.” Earlier, Dr Kale had claimed that the orders for giving additional charge of the medical superintendent to Dr Taware were given by Mushrif.