On a day when a Trinamool Congress MP lectured the Centre on Bengal-type "stringent health services laws," brought by Mamata Banerjee, health services in Kolkata continued to be as pathetic as before.
Giving not a fig to the much bandied "stringent health regulatory laws" enacted by the Mamata Banerjee Government barely a week ago, cash-thirsty private hospitals continued to refuse patients keeping "deficient medical service" a cause of concern for what they still continue to dub the City of Joy.
Thanks to such hypocritical breaking of the "Hippocratic oath" relatives of Sunil Patra a patient whose left leg got severed in a road accident at Kultali some 50 miles off Kolkata ran from one hospital to the other but was refused treatment for want of money.
In the process the poor patient not only lost the proverbial "golden hours" and a chance of getting the severed leg re-planted but also pushed the poor patient to a near-fatal state. The man was finally admitted to the State-run SSKM Hospital where he is now fighting for life.
"We rushed with the patient and the severed leg to a famous private hospital in Kolkata where they refused to admit him as we could not deposit the initial Rs 50,000. Then we ran to another hospital at Salt lake and from there we came to the SSKM where treatment started late in the evening," said one of the relatives of the victims aware of the brand new State Health Regulatory Commission.
In yet another case a man lost his life a couple of days ago for alleged deficient services at another 'five star' hospital. The man was admitted for heart ailments.
One of the victim's relatives said that he was brought to the hospital with a clot on his left leg. "On March 11, we were told that it would be removed surgically but later the doctors informed us that there had been an infection. His foot from ankle had to be amputated." However, his condition deteriorated on March 13. An FIR has been lodged in the case
Close on the heels of a pathetic death at the Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals about a fortnight ago — where the doctors not only wrongly treated an accident victim but also the authorities held back the patient from being shifted to the SSKM Hospital and only released him after fixed-deposit certificates worth a huge amount were kept as security wasting some vital hours in the process the Chief Minister got a strict regulatory law enacted that prescribes huge fine and even imprisonment.
In the said case the patient party was given a hugely inflated bill of more than Rs 7 lakh.
Curiously the Wednesday's development of the man losing his leg comes hours before a Trinamool Congress MP mentioned the issue in Parliament advocating a Bengal-type health regulatory law to reign in rogue hospitals and deficient service providers.