kolkata: After being denied admissions into various government hospitals, a 24-day-old baby, Alip Sheikh, finally secured admission into NRS Medical College to undergo a surgery with the intervention of a top official from the state Health department. The parents of the baby were running from one government hospital to another in the city to get the child admitted.
This comes at a time when the state Health department has been giving strict instruction to all the hospitals to check unnecessary referral of patients. Various medical colleges in the state are now chalking out plans to bring in a full proof mechanism to avoid such incidents. The recent incident of refusal occurred when Alip was referred to a city hospital by the Burdwan Medical College. The baby was born at Rampurhat Medical College. The baby's father, Azizul Seikh, is a resident of Khargram in Murshidabad. The doctors at the Rampurhat Medical College found that the newborn had a problem in his genitals.
The baby was referred to Burdwan Medical College for a surgery. He was kept in the ICU of Burdwan Medical College for 5 days and eventually transferred to Kolkata. The parents took the baby to NRS Medical College, where he was denied a bed. The baby was then taken to RG Kar Medical College and then to the SSKM Hospital. A catheter was fitted on the patient as he had issues while passing urine. No surgery could be conducted on the patient at the SSKM Hospital. The family members of the patient then contacted Swasthya Bhawan. Following the intervention of a senior health official, the patient was admitted to the NRS Medical College.
State Health department has already warned that stern action would be taken against the hospital authorities if such incidents continue to occur. It was learnt that many of the medical colleges in the city had initiated some processes in this regard. All the admission and the discharge of patients would be maintained on the computer by the hospitals. All the records will be preserved. Till now a log was maintained by the hospital regarding the admission and release of patients. Computer generated data will have to be maintained at the hospitals. State government has already constructed top class superspecialty hospitals in various districts. But, referrals of patients happen. As per the new guidelines, before referring the patients, the doctors in the hospitals have to ensure that there are vacant beds and adequate infrastructure to handle such patients in the other hospitals. Action will be taken if any lapses are found on the parts of the doctors.