Panel set up to probe Kumaramangalam's treatment

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 25. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today announced the constitution of a six-member committee to inquire into all aspects of the treatment provided to the Union Power Minister, P.R. Kumaramangalam, at the Apollo hospital here, during four months of his illness. Kumaramangalam died on Wednesday at the AIIMS where he had been last admitted after alleged unsatisfactory treatment at the Apollo hospital.

The Medical Superintendent of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Dr. C.P. Singh, was named chairman of the Probe Committee. The other members of the committee were Lt. Gen. (Retd.) D. Raghunath, the former director-general of Armed Forces Medical Services, Bangalore, Dr. K.R. Sethuraman, Prof. of Medicine, JIPMER, Pondicherry, Dr. F. Chandra Sekaran, Consultant-Medicine, RML Hospital, Dr. P.S. Gupta, Sr. Consultant-Medicine, Ganga Ram Hospital, and Dr. Mammen Chandy, Head of Department, Haemotology, Christian Medical College, Vellore.

The Committee has been asked to submit its report within two weeks to the Union Health Minister, Dr. C.P. Thakur.

There have been allegations that Apollo hospital doctors had been treating Kumarmangalam without carrying out a proper diagnosis. It was also alleged that the hospital could not diagnose the cause of his illness as his fever had kept reappearing despite prolonged treatment.

Apart from speculation in the media about the line of treatment followed by the hospital, the issue had also figured in Parliament with MPs demanding a probe into all aspects of the medical treatment given to Kumaramangalam at the hospital.

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