Man with severed leg refused treatment

At a time when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has cracked the whip on private healthcare establishments by urging them to be more "sympathetic" towards patients, relatives of a road accident victim alleged that "indifferent attitude" in state-run hospitals led to inordinate delay in starting treatment.

Sunil Patra, a crab seller in Kultali in South 24 Parganas, was seriously injured after being hit by a truck. He was on his way to the market when the vehicle hit him from behind. The impact of the accident was so severe that a portion of his left leg got severed from the knee.

The locals took him to the health centre where the doctors asked his relatives to bring the portion of the leg that got severed. The victim bled profusely and was almost senseless.

His friends and relatives hired an ambulance and brought him to Calcutta Heart Clinic where the doctors expressed their inability to treat him because of lack of infrastructure.

He was then taken to Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI). The hospital authorities refused to start treatment unless the patient party deposited Rs 50,000. As those accompanying Patra did not have the money, they took him to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Soumya Patra, one of the victim's relatives alleged that the doctors did not attend him and later told them to take him to SSKM hospital. "The doctors wanted to dodge their responsibility. We had requested them to attend to Sunil and start treatment. We had bandaged the damaged portion with plastic but the doctors did not listen to us and asked us to take him to SSKM," he said.

Patra was taken to SSKM around 2.30 pm where the doctors refused to admit him on the ground of unavailability of beds. However, later they allotted a bed after the patient's relatives produced a letter from Manturam Pakhira, minister for Sundarbans Development.

Soumya Patra alleged that though he was admitted, the doctors did not start treatment. "If this is the condition in state-run hospitals where the authorities take several hours to admit a seriously injured patient, then where will the ordinary people like us go," rued Soumya.