Times of India
2 April 2010
Bangalore, India

Committee Finds Hospitals Don’t Keep Scan Reports
Determining the sex of a foetus is illegal. Persons who opt for it and doctors who do the test and reveal data are held guilty under the Prenatal Sex Determination (Prohibition and Regulation) Act.

But the grim reality is that sex detection of the foetus seems to be prevalent in the city. This was the inference of a committee that couldn’t find records of scanning in hospitals where it conducted inspections.

On Thursday, the District Advisory Committee and Inspection Committee for Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques of Sex visited some top private and government maternity hospitals. They found that scanning departments in most of the hospitals as well as scanning centres do not maintain records and reports of the patients. Gross violation of the PNDT Act was detected by the committee, with the absence of a radiologist and patient consent form not being filled, indicating prevalence of illegal practice of sex detection.

During the inspection, a prominent private maternity hospital was found to have not maintained records for almost two years.

The committee also visited the government’s Vani Vilas Hospital where neither scanning records nor the reports were found to be maintained.

Hospital Clarifies
A clarification was issued by one of the hospitals visited by the committee. Cradle Hospital CEO and MD Dr Kishore, said: “In the morning, doctors had to attend an emergency case and couldn’t sign the scan report of a woman who was into her sixth week of pregnancy. Based on this issue, the committee concluded that Cradle was conducting sex–determination tests.”

“It is scientifically proven that sex of a foetus can be determined only after 12 weeks. At six weeks, doctors can only assess the growth of the foetus. The committee chose to ignore these facts while issuing statements,” he said. Admitting that the doctor concerned had failed to sign the scan report, he said the hospital is ready to face any action in this regard.