Kolkata: State health department served a show-cause notice to the superintendent of the Pavlov Mental Hospital after it found that inmates were kept inside locked rooms, on dirty floors and amidst a filthy environment.
Senior health officials in the field of mental health paid a visit to the hospital in April this year and submitted a report to the department. The report made shocking revelations. Director of Public Health has showcaused the hospital superintendent Dr Ganesh Prasad on the basis of the report submitted by the mental health officials. The health department has asked Prasad as to why action would not be taken against them for a series of irregularities.
The report said that around 13 women inmates have been kept inside two locked rooms. Around 9 patients were inside one room while four others were locked up inside the other room. Both the rooms were dampened full of dirt. Even pieces of sharp iron materials were found lying inside the rooms. Many of the inmates developed infections on their bodies while injury marks were spotted on some others. No doctors, nursing staff or the hospital superintendent had ever taken any care for these inmates, the report claimed.
The hospital superintendent however failed to provide any satisfactory answer why the patients were kept in such a situation.
It was also alleged that the patients were served rotten food. In the face of health officials' questions on why the inmates were kept inside locked rooms, the nursing staff members said that the doctors had advised them to put them inside locked rooms.
They have however failed to produce any such written order. A standard guideline says that patients should never be kept in such a precarious situation.