Delhi entrepreneur flags open drain at doctor's hospital after his JW Marriott post

After cardiologist Dr Ashok Seth called out Mumbai JW Marriott over hygiene lapses, an entrepreneur turned the spotlight on his own hospital cafe in Delhi.

In Short

• Dr Ashok Seth criticised Mumbai restaurant's hygiene over cockroach video
• Entrepreneur Gagandeep Singh Sapra shared photo of overflowing drain at Seth's hospital café
• Sapra accused hospital of poor hygiene and pest control during meals

A Delhi-based entrepreneur has questioned Dr Ashok Seth’s criticism of a Mumbai restaurant’s hygiene after sharing a photo of an open, overflowing drain at the cardiologist’s hospital cafe in the capital.

Gagandeep Singh Sapra said he had raised concerns about the facility’s hygiene several times.

Dr Seth, Chairman of Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, recently shared a video on X showing a cockroach crawling around his table at Romano’s in JW Marriott Mumbai. He tagged Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Tukaram Mundhe and urged authorities to look into the incident.

Gagandeep responded to Dr Seth’s post with a photograph from the cafeteria of the cardiologist’s hospital in Delhi’s Friends Colony. He brought attention to an open and overflowing drain that he found inside the cafe and food-service area, close to where food was being prepared and served.

“Sir Dr Ashok Seth, people who live in glass houses should perhaps be careful about throwing stones,” Gagandeep wrote while sharing the photograph.

He also detailed that the drain was uncovered and overflowing when he raised the issue with the hospital. He claimed that additional stools had been placed around it, which he said appeared to restrict people from accessing the area.

Gagandeep also claimed that this was not the first hygiene-related concern he had raised at the hospital.

“I have raised hygiene concerns at the hospital on several occasions, including pest-control activity taking place in the food court while people were eating,” he wrote.

“These are not accusations made from a distance; they are observations from repeated visits to an institution where patients and their families place enormous trust,” he added.

Gagandeep added that he agreed with Seth’s concern about the presence of a cockroach in a restaurant but argued that similar standards should be applied to hygiene issues within a hospital cafe.

He concluded by calling for consistency in the standards expected from businesses and institutions, saying that such consistency was necessary to maintain trust among customers, patients and their families.

See the post:

Gagandeep Singh Sapra's post has since attracted considerable attention on X, with several users agreeing with his broader point about applying hygiene standards consistently.

The incident comes amid growing scrutiny of food hygiene at restaurants and eateries, particularly when customers share videos of insects or other contamination concerns online.

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