Cops arrest staff of pvt nursing home for refusing to turn it into COVID-19 facility
Darjeeling: Police have arrested two management staff members of a private nursing home in Siliguri for non-cooperation in converting the facility into a dedicated COVID-19 hospital.
Incidentally the district administration had requisitioned three private nursing homes in and around Siliguri.
There have been repeated complaints of the management of Desun Hospital in Matigarah for not cooperating with the district administration. "On Sunday a complaint was lodged by the District Magistrate, Darjeeling at the Matigarah police station regarding this. The hospital has neither been cooperating nor shifting the patients, despite repeated correspondence. They were also provoking the local residents. Acting on this complaint, we have arrested two persons from the hospital," stated Kunwar Bhushan Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police, West, Siliguri Metropolitan Police.
Police arrested one Bijan Talukdar and Anupam Dey in the wee hours of the morning. They have been charged under different sections of the Disaster Management Act and the IPC. The process of shifting the existing patients from the hospital has already started, added the DCP.
Meanwhile, there have been demonstrations by local residents at the Medica North Bengal Clinic, demanding that the nursing home should not be used to screen COVID-19 patients.
Local residents demanded that the screening centre should not be in a dense locality and that as most of the nursing home staff live in the locality, chances of an outbreak cannot be ruled out.
A team of doctors including Dr Abhijit Chowdhury and Dr G K Dhali of the Health Expert Committee of the state government had inspected the nursing home on April 10 and had assured the protesters that there was nothing to fear. Dr. Chowdhury had further assured that he would communicate the demand of the residents to the higher-ups in Kolkata.
Meanwhile, Dr Chang's Nursing Home, which has also been requisitioned by the state government, is now fully functional as a COVID-19 hospital. 2 COVID-19 positive persons including a 3 year old were discharged after successful treatment from this nursing home on Saturday and another 4 were discharged on Sunday.
