Overview
- A widely shared video shows a security guard stitching a wounded patient inside the minor operation theatre at Bagaha Sub-divisional Hospital in West Champaran, Bihar.
- Hospital leaders say the guard assisted under a doctor's supervision during a rush of road-accident cases when key clinical posts were unfilled.
- The injured men, including pickup driver Wasim Akhtar and passenger Surendra Pasi, call the treatment gross negligence and say an untrained person handled their wounds.
- Operation theatres are restricted to trained doctors and nurses, and the guard's role has raised clear patient-safety concerns about protocol and oversight.
- A CAG audit for 2016–2022 reports a 49% vacancy rate and a doctor-to-population ratio of 1:2,148 in Bihar, with 13,340 health posts still awaiting recruitment against WHO's 1:1,000 norm.