Tainted Vasai-Virar officer’s hospital has no abortion data

More alleged wrongdoings by a nowarrested former chief medical officer of the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation have tumbled out even as the Palghar district health office has started a parallel probe against him A private multispecialty hospital owned by alleged bogus doctor Sunil Wadkar 44 has no records of abortions or deliveries said Dr Yojana Jadhav taluka health officerldquoWadkar had been running Highway Hospital since 2013 but it has not maintained a record of number of deliveries and abortions conducted there till daterdquo said Dr Jadhav ldquoAbove all Wadkarrsquos wife is a dentist who has got a certificate in nursing from a Civil Hospital Thane in 2013 to conduct medical termination of pregnancy and tubal ligationhellip this is again illegalrdquo said Dr Jadhav whose complaint led to Wadkar arrestWadkar is in the custody of Virar police in a forgery case as he could not produce his MBBS degree ldquoHow Wadkarrsquos wife got this certificate when she was a dentist She was not authorised to get this certificate yet she secured it This is a matter of investigationrdquo said Dr Jadhav District Health Officer Dr Dayanand Suryavanshi said ldquoThe documents that Sunil Wadkar has produced are forged We are conducting a thorough enquiry and are assisting the police in their investigationrdquoSunil Wadkar former chief medical officer at VVCMC PicsHanif PatelOn Thursday a team from the district health office visited Wadkarrsquos Highway Hospital on the MumbaiAhmedabad Highway ldquoTaluka health officer medical superintendent block development officer and other officials have been studying the files and certificates at Highway Hospital We are also checking if it is registered under the Bombay Nursing Act and what all treatments were given to patients at this hospitalrdquo said Dr Rajendra Kelkar additional civil surgeon of Palghar districtldquoThe report will be submitted before the Department of Medical Education and Research and then the action will be taken by themrdquo Dr Kelkar added Sources in the police department said many tenders had been floated when Wadkar served as the chief medical officer of Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation VVCMCldquoA few tenders were jointly undersigned by the then civic chief and Wadkar as many medical equipment were required to run hospitals in the newly formed municipal corporation So all these tenders are being checked We have also learnt that a few bogus tenders were floated by Wadkar and these are subject of investigationrdquo said an officer privy to the investigationldquoOur initial investigation indicates that Wadkar was supported by the administration in his bogus actrdquo said the source who added ldquoWhen he was the CMO at VVCMC Wadkar would tell his juniors that he had studied medicine from a medical college in BengalururdquoWadkar busted many fake doctors excolleagueA doctor who worked in Wadkarrsquos team at VVCMC said the latter gave the impression of an efficient doctor ldquoThough he himself is a bogus doctor yet he conducted various drives under PreConception amp PreNatal Diagnostic Techniques Act and got many fake doctors arrested when he was civic medical bossrdquo said the doctor A senior medical officer from the district health office too raised questions over the permission given to Wadkarrsquos dentist wife to conduct abortions and tubal ligationldquoWe have also learnt that Highway Hospital issued many death certificates in crucial cases in which postmortem was mandatory Yet the autopsy was not conducted and the death certificates were issued We are probing this angle toordquo said a police officer ldquoHe was a strict boss and would never allow people to take leave easily We all were contractual employees including Wadkarhelliphe would also take time to release our salaryrdquo said a sourceMany COVID patients were treated at Highway Hospital said sources ldquoThere were deaths too The COVID patients admitted to this hospital never got Remdesivir vialshellipmany patients died during the pandemicrdquo said a source Palghar Collector Maanikrao Gursal said ldquoThat hospital was not registered under COVID in Palghar Everything is being thoroughly probedrdquo