Chandrima's surprise visit to Siliguri District Hospital

Kolkata: Minister of State for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya paid a surprise visit to the Siliguri District Hospital on Monday to take stock of the health services there.

During her visit to the hospital, the minister expressed her dissatisfaction over the transfer of patients. After going through the refer register of the hospital, Bhattacharya gave a clear instruction to the hospital authorities that patients could be not referred to other hospitals until there is a genuine need and urgency.

The minister, accompanied by the Chief Medical Officer of Health in the district and other health department officials, visited the hospital on Monday morning. She first went to the gynecological department of the hospital and interacted with the patients and asked about the problems they were facing there.

She took a stock of the overall health infrastructure of the hospital. She also asked the doctors and non-medical staff of the hospital about the health services. While interacting with the minister, some of the doctors told her that there was scarcity of beds in the hospital that mainly happened because of huge pressure of patients coming in for treatment.

After talking to the doctors and patients, Bhattacharya went to the office of the hospital superintendent to see the refer register.

After going through it, she found there was a tendency to transfer the patients to other hospitals. She also sought a clarification from the hospital superintendent on why a sizable number of patients admitted to the hospital were being transferred. She expressed her dissatisfaction over the clarification and also instructed the hospital superintendent not to transfer a patient who could be treated in the hospital.

It may be mentioned that transferring of patients from one hospital to the other has become a serious problem for the state Health department as it creates a huge burden on the referral hospitals in the city.