India, Dec. 16 -- Peripheral civic hospitals in Mumbai are routinely referring patients to other facilities - and it's not because they are short staffed.

Sources in some peripheral hospitals say senior resident doctors have been punching in and punching out, without attending to patients, resulting in routine as well as serious cases being routed to other hospitals.

For instance, cataract patients at the BMC's Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivali have been re-routed for months, and a gallbladder patient was recently referred elsewhere without surgical assessment.

At the MW Desai Hospital in Malad, patients with chest pain are being advised to approach more advanced medical facilities, without so much as a basic ECG being performed.

A staff...