Swasthya Sathi refusal: Health body asks cops to investigate

Kolkata: The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) on Friday directed both the Howrah city police and Kolkata police to carry out separate investigation to ascertain whether two private hospitals —Narayana Superspeciality Hospital Howrah and AMRI Hospital Dhakuria refused to treat a patient under Swasthya Sathi in July this year.

While hearing the case the WBCERC referred it to the police as both the private hospitals claimed that they did not refuse the patient. After Nilima Chakraborty died, her son Deebakar, the complainant, alleged that the hospital refused to admit the patient under the Swasthya Sathi scheme. Howrah city police will conduct the probe in connection with the Narayana Superspeciality Hospital while Kolkata police will carry out the probe in AMRI hospital case. Both the private hospitals told the commission that they do not have the CCTV footage of July.

The patient died after she was refused admission by three private hospitals in July. The third hospital involved in the case is the KPC Medical College that had refused admission to the patient saying that she required neurological care and the neurologist of the hospital had already left. Hence they could not admit the patient.

WBCERC will pronounce its judgment after the police submit their report in both the cases. WBCERC Chairman Justice (retired) Ashim Banerjee said that there is some merit in what the complainant has said but both the private hospitals are saying that they did not receive any such patient. The case was heard by the Commission on December 14 as well when it urged the family members to visit these hospitals and identify the staff members with whom they had conversed way back in July.

In another development, the Commission asked the Spandan Hospital to return Rs 17,000 to the family members of a deceased patient as the hospital charged them exorbitantly. The victim, a 31-year-old woman was initially taken to Charnock Hospital and later shifted to Spandan where she remained under treatment for two days.