Sunil Patra's kin lodges complaint against CMRI hospital

Family members of Sunil Patra lodged a complaint at Alipore police station alleging medical negligence against CMRI Hospital on Sunday morning.

CMRI Hospital authorities had allegedly refused to initiate treatment of Sunil when he was crying in pain after his left leg was severed from his knee in a road accident on March 15. The private hospital allegedly refused to start his treatment as his family members had failed to arrange Rs 50,000 right at that moment, as claimed by the hospital.

On Sunday morning, Sunil's family members went to the police station and lodged a complaint against the hospital authorities and demanded a proper probe into the case at a time when private hospitals are being pulled up by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Recently, the state government passed the West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Bill and it has become a law with the Governor giving his assent on Thursday.

The state took the initiative to introduce the law to ensure "transparent functioning of clinical establishments".

In the complaint, the victim's family members alleged that the hospital authorities had asked them to arrange Rs 50,000 for Sunil's treatment.

However, it was noticed by the family members of Sunil that the hospital authorities are not taking much interest for his treatment when they told that it was not possible for them to arrange such a huge amount of money right at that moment.

Finally, they had managed to arrange Rs 25,000 and requested the hospital authorities to initiate the treatment against the money. They had even assured of trying their level best to pay the remaining amount.

Though some senior officials had agreed to initiate the treatment, the entire process stopped when they went to the billing section of the hospital. Executives in the billing section refused to take Rs 25,000, which is half of the total amount demanded for. Thus, the treatment didn't start.

Finally, Sunil was taken to SSKM Hospital. But by that time, the "golden hour" was over. Thus, despite undergoing a surgery, it was not possible for the doctors in SSKM to join his leg.

According to a police officer, the concerned doctors of the hospital will be summoned and they will be questioned about the allegations of Sunil's family members.

The family members are also planning to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

It may be mentioned that the family members of Sanjoy Roy, who had died due to alleged medical negligence of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, and Sunil Pandey, who died due to medical negligence of Medica Superspecialty Hospital, had also met the Chief Minister.