2 hospitals in Tripura, Kolkata say will not treat Bangladesh patients

The statement from ILS Hospitals came on a day when an Indo-Bangla international passenger bus rammed into another bus while crossing the Biswa Road in Bangladesh’s Brahmanbaria district. The Tripura government claimed the bus came “under attack”.

“… a goods-carrying truck deliberately rammed into the bus with the intention to cause an accident… After the incident, local people started hurling threats to Indian passengers in the vehicle. Anti-India slogans were raised and life threats were made to them,” Tripura Transport and Tourism Minister Sushanta Chowdhury wrote on social media.

On Friday, the JN Ray Hospital in Kolkata’s Maniktala announced it will not treat any Bangladeshi patients as a sign of protest over the manner in which “the national flag of India has been desecrated in various places” in the neighbouring country. BJP leader Sajal Ghosh, a councillor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, is one of the directors of this hospital.

“Country is above all. Nothing can happen above the country. Medical service is a noble profession but the dignity of the country is paramount. Other medical institutions should also follow this path,” Subhranshu Bhakta, the director of JN Ray Hospital, said Friday. He said the hospital has decided to stop providing all services to patients from Bangladesh for now.

“Our hospital is a private hospital and Ghosh is our one of the directors and management service provider,” Bhakta said.

According to hospital sources, the 141-bed hospital always used to have 20% Bangladeshi patients at any given time. “We don’t have any Bangladeshi patients right now. We have three Bangladeshi patients who were discharged in the last few days and then we announced to stop admitting Bangladeshi patients,” he said.

Earlier, gynaecologist Indranil Saha said on social media that he had stopped seeing Bangladeshi patients. On Thursday night, Saha posted a picture on social media purportedly showing disrespect to the Indian flag in Bangladesh. “I am stopping seeing Bangladeshi patients in the chamber for now. Country first, income later. I hope other doctors will do the same until the relationship is normal,” Saha said.

On Friday afternoon, Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, made the same demand. “I bow down to Dr Indranil Saha.” “…I request the entire Indian medical community, businessmen and India lovers to boycott Bangladesh completely,” Adhikari said.

While the state does not have an exact number of Bangladeshi patients that come here for medical tourism, private hospitals that The Indian Express spoke to claim that they make up at least 10% of their total patient count.

However, hospital sources also say that the political crisis in Bangladesh has caused these numbers to plummet — in some cases, dramatically by three quarters. A senior representative of the Narayana Health, which runs the RN Tagore Hospital, said, “The numbers have gone down from 180-200 to 60. We apprehend more fall in these numbers in the coming weeks because of Visa issues.”