Condoling the death of the gang- rape victim, the Indian Medical Association today questioned the airlifting of the 23-year-old victim to Singapore for advanced treatment and wanted to know whether hospitals in India lack infrastructure to treat such patients.

The IMA sought to ask the government whether the reason to shift the patient was purely for medical purposes or there were other factors.

The paramedic student was airlifted to Singapore on Wednesday night after undergoing treatment for 10 days at the Safdarjung Hospital. Many doctors have questioned the move with some directly attacking the government, saying it was a political move.

K Vijayakumar, President of the IMA, told PTI that a doubt arises in everyone's mind whether the country's premier institutes and hospitals lack infrastructure to treat such patients.

"Indian hospitals have infrastructure at par with their counterparts in other countries. India is emerging as a major centre of medical tourism and obviously the shifting of the girl raises the question whether our hospitals lack the necessary facilities?" he asked.

Indian doctors are "equally competent" to handle such cases, Vijayakumar said.

Condoling the death, Honorary Secretary of IMA Dr Narendra Saini also wanted to know the reasons behind shifting the girl from India to Singapore.

"Is it safe or of any advantage to transfer of patient in this condition? Do our hospitals lack infrastructure or our doctors incompetent to handle such patients or this particular decision was taken for other reasons?" he asked.

Both the President and Honorary Secretary of the IMA demanded that the government come out with some criteria and norms to be followed in cases of transferring patients to other hospitals.

Earlier in the day, as questions cropped up over shifting the Delhi gangrape victim to Singapore, the doctor, who led the team that treated her in Safdarjung Hospital, and another who accompanied her in the air ambulance, today rebutted criticism of the decision saying the intention was to save her at any cost.

Maintaining that this was not not the time to have a debate whether the decision to shift her was political or medical, Dr BD Athani, Superintendent of Safdarjung Hospital, said, "The pure intention was to save her. The whole nation was praying for her and everyone was hoping for the best. We could not have given hope. We wanted to save her."

Dr Yatin Mehta, a critical care specialist of the Medanta Medicity Hospital, said he was surprised by criticism of the decision.

Some experts like Dr Samiran Nandi of the Ganga Ram Hospital had expressed surprise why a critically ill patient with infection in blood and body, high grade fever who was on ventilator was being transferred.

"It was always a clever retrospection. Doctors are always at (their) best to criticise the decisions of other doctors and that is not not fair," Mehta said on the criticism.

Mehta said the patient survived for 48 hours in Singapore and so it cannot be said that she should not have been transferred.

"Secondly, there is no comparison between government hospitals in India and Mount Elizabeth in Singapore. I am not not talking about the expertise of the doctors but about the infrastructure. We need to acknowledge that," Mehta said.

Dr Athani said she had most serious forms of injuries to her intestine and genital system.