The row over the suspension of licence of Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, run by a trust headed by Sonia Gandhi, intensified on Tuesday with Samajwadi Party joining the Congress' protest in Amethi and Union minister and local MP Smriti Irani lashing out at them.
Over 400 employees have also started an indefinite dharna at the hospital gate against the state government's decision.
The licence was suspended on September 17 following the death of a woman patient who was admitted there for a minor operation on September 14.
Her husband has alleged that she was given an overdose of anaesthesia, which worsened her condition and ultimately led to her death
Samajwadi Party district chief Ram Udit Yadav joined the dharna by the Congress members at the office of the chief medical officer, around 12 km from the hospital.
Congress' former MLC Deepak Singh said he will continue his "satyagraha" till services are resumed in the hospital and facilities at other government hospitals in the district are improved.
As the issue took a political turn, Union minister and Amethi MP Smriti Irani attacked the Congress, saying instead of supporting the family of the deceased, the opposition party was "crying over the loss of their profits".
"A woman dies because of hospital arrangements. Instead of supporting the family of the deceased woman and taking any action against those who killed a patient, Congress is crying over the loss of their profits.
"Is the life of an ordinary citizen of Amethi worth nothing?" Irani, who is MP from Amethi, said in Lucknow while replying to queries from reporters on the issue.
Amid protest by hospital workers, president of Sanjay Gandhi Hospital Employees Union Sanjay Singh alleged that the hospital has been closed due to "political jealousy".
"More than 400 employees and doctors work in the hospital. Due to the closure of the hospital, all of them became unemployed and everyone was facing a crisis of livelihood," he said
Singh said that about 800 patients used to come to this hospital for treatment every day.
"Not only from Amethi, patients from Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Rae Bareli and Barabanki used to come here and now everyone is worried," he said, adding that the protest will continue until the hospital services are restored.
The hospital is run by the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust, Delhi. Its chairperson is former Congress president Sonia Gandhi while her son and party leader Rahul Gandhi is a member.
BJP MP Varun Gandhi and Congress state president Ajay Rai had written separate letters to Uttar Pradesh deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath respectively, requesting them to reconsider the decision.
Irani had defeated former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, considered the pocket borough of his family, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Meanwhile, the license of the private Janata hospital in Amethi was also suspended on Monday evening and its OPD services stopped for alleged negligence that led to the death of a pregnant woman.
Chief medical officer Anshuman Singh said Ram Kumar Pandey, the father-in-law of the deceased woman, had filed a complaint with the police and the health department demanding action against the doctors and staff of the hospital for alleged negligence.
A team of three doctors led by Additional CMO Ram Prasad had conducted a probe in which negligence of the hospital was found and its licence was suspended.
Pandey, in his complaint, alleged that his daughter-in-law Suman was due to deliver on September 15 for which she was taken to Janta Hospital.
A doctor, who was present during the checkup, advised a cesarean operation and the woman was operated on the same day.
However, after about one-and-a-half hours, when her condition deteriorated, she was referred to a private hospital in Lucknow. On reaching there, the doctors told them that Suman had already died, Pandey alleged in his complaint.
