Panel finds ‘no evidence of patients paying for beds at Cal Med College’
Kolkata: A committee that was investigating allegations that patients had to pay to get a bed at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) has not found any evidence of patients’ families paying for availing of a bed in the hospital.
The committee has made certain recommendations that all inpatients be given a free back form and asked if they were asked for money for securing a bed. Following the recommendation, Calcutta Medical College may soon introduce a feedback form for the patients. Group D staffers may also compulsorily have to wear uniforms as per the recommendations. The main objective of the move is to stop touts.
The 11-member committee with senior and junior doctors, and interns as members was formed after several junior doctors had complained to the authorities that patients’ families were being forced to pay to get them admitted. The probe committee has already submitted its report to the
hospital authorities.
The committee has recommended a three-level check for the patients getting admitted. A patient feedback form has to be kept with the bed ticket and every patient or family member has to mandatorily fill in the form. They will be asked on the form whether they had to pay to get a bed or whether someone had approached them for money. The doctor examining a patient in the Emergency department will also ask whether there is any demand for money.
Suppose a patient is admitted on someone’s recommendation, that too will be recorded in the feedback form. The committee has also recommended that boards with the message that no money needs to be paid for a bed be put up at strategic points. The boards will also display the message that anyone approached for money should lodge a complaint with the medical superintendent of the hospital.
Meanwhile, the allegation that surfaced at the RG Kar Medical College that surgical gloves with blood stains were found in the store was found to be an incident of sabotage by some left-minded resident doctors who planted the gloves with colours on them to malign the state government.
