PRAYAGRAJ, July 27 -- Observing that private hospitals and nursing homes were treating patients like "guinea pigs/ATMs" so as to extort money out of them, the Allahabad high court has dismissed a plea filed by a doctor seeking the quashing of a 2008 case initiated against him in connection with the death of a foetus allegedly due to delay in surgery. The bench of Justice Prashant Kumar said that it has become a common practice for the hospitals to entice patients and call for the relevant doctor later. "It is a common practice these days that private nursing homes/hospitals tend to entice patients for treatment even though they do not have doctors or infrastructure.It is common knowledge that private hospitals/nursing homes have started treating patients as guinea pigs/ATM machines only to extort money out of them," the court observed. An FIR was lodged against the doctor in Deoria on July 29, 2007. The complaint alleged that the pregnant wife of his younger brother was admitted to the nursing home run by the applicant. It was alleged that there was a five-hour delay in performing the operation by the applicant, by which time the foetus had died. P3...