A random sampling of 76 women has revealed that most hysterectomies were medically unnecessary.
A study by a non-governmental organisation in Kalaburagi in Karnataka that threw light on some private hospitals putting women of the backward Lambani community through "medically unnecessary" hysterectomies has kicked up a storm here. The State government, on learning of the study, has closed down one of the hospitals where a high number of hysterectomies were performed.
A study by the Karnataka Janaarogya Chaluvali (KJC), an NGO working on health issues, shows high incidence of women undergoing hysterectomy in private hospitals in Kalaburagi — particularly those living in the Banjara tandas and in the neighbouring Omerga and Solapur cities of Maharashtra.
A random sampling of 76 women (of 487 who underwent hysterectomy in the recent past) has revealed that most hysterectomies were medically unnecessary. Gullible women were made "easy victims" by those running private hospitals in Kalaburagi city.
Of the women studied, 52 per cent were aged less than 35 and 29 per cent were below the age of 30.
In a private hospital in Kalaburagi city — which accounted for the largest cases of 156 hysterectomies — as many as 32 per cent were aged less than 30 and 59 per cent less than 35 years.
A spokesperson of KJC told The Hindu that the modus operandi was to "instil fear" among patients with common menstrual problems by saying that their uterus was irreparably "damaged" and needed to be removed immediately.
She claimed that there was a reason to believe a nexus between private hospitals and government grassroots-level health workers to bring recruit the patients.
The study, she claimed, had several instances where scan reports of the patients indicated other problems relating to kidney and urinary bladder. But the doctors, without treating these problems, performed hysterectomy although the uterus was a "normal study" in the scan reports.
On an average, around Rs. 27,000 is charged for hysterectomy, apart from hospital and medicine charges.
The spokesperson said 68 of the 76 women interviewed complained of continued health issues even after hysterectomy.
What is more, hospitals seldom handed over complete scan reports and discharge summaries to the patients. Only 54 of the patients interviewed had full records.
The Karnataka Janaarogya Chaluvali (KJC), which exposed large-scale unnecessary hysterectomy performed on women from Banjara tandas in Kalaburagi district by few private hospitals, has demanded that the district administration act against all the hospitals allegedly involved in the racket.
In a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Vipul Bansal here on Thursday, KJC State convener Akhila Vasan said that after reports in The Hindu and a sting operation by TV9 to expose the racket, the private hospital concerned had shifted nearly 25 inpatients who had undergone hysterectomy to other hospitals hurriedly even before the District Health and Family welfare officials visited the hospital.
He was accompanied by district conveners Sister Teena Xavier, Anand Raj and Vittal Chikkani.
KJC provided a list of 71 hospitals and nursing homes in Kalaburagi, Omerga, and Solapur in Maharashtra and Tandur in Telangana where unnecessary hysterectomy were performed on over 700 normal patients.
The memorandum also pointed out that Kalaburagi had become an epicentre for conducting such illegal operations on healthy young women and removing reproductive organs.
KJC also said that none of the private hospitals maintained medical records and 95 per cent of the hospitals and nursing homes failed to provide discharge summary details to the patients. There were instances of medical records of the patients being destroyed after the patients developed complications.
Levelling serious charges against the private hospitals, KJC said that a 23-year-old woman of Kinni Sadak tanda in Kalaburagi taluk, who underwent hysterectomy in a private hospital in Kalaburagi on July 17, died later due to post-operative complications.
KJC said that they were in possession of the medical records of several women who had died after the hysterectomy surgeries in the district.
They said that erring doctors of the private hospital should be arrested and cases booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Atrocities (Prevention) Act.
Patients who have been shifted from the private hospital should be obtained and they should be admitted in Government Hospital and provided expert treatment.