Eleven kidney-transplant patients at Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital cannot undergo surgery because their medical files are locked in a retired doctor's office [1].

This administrative failure leaves patients dependent on continuous dialysis, prolonging their suffering and risking further health complications while they wait for essential life-saving procedures.

The crisis began May 31, 2024 [2], when the former head of the nephrology unit retired. The patient files remained inside the retired chief's office, which has since been locked. Because these records are inaccessible, the acting doctors have refused to proceed with the transplants [1].

Medical records are critical for transplant surgeries to ensure patient safety and surgical precision. Without these documents, the current medical staff cannot verify the clinical history or the specific requirements of the 11 patients [1].

The patients have been forced to continue dialysis treatments since May 2024 [2]. This situation highlights a significant gap in the hospital's handover protocols, as the transition of care was not managed before the senior doctor departed the institution [1].

Sawai Man Singh Hospital is a primary healthcare provider in Rajasthan. The inability to access physical files in a digital age underscores a reliance on paper-based systems that can lead to total operational paralysis when a single staff member leaves [1].

“Eleven kidney-transplant patients cannot undergo surgery because their medical files are locked.”

This incident reveals a critical vulnerability in the public healthcare infrastructure of Rajasthan, where the lack of digitized medical records allows a single administrative oversight to halt life-saving treatment. The refusal of acting doctors to operate without the original files suggests a rigid adherence to protocol that, while intended to ensure safety, has resulted in medical apathy and patient endangerment.