The West Bengal government was forced to make a quick climbdown today on its position on the death of children at a government hospital here after three more collapsed at the B.C. Roy Memorial Children’s Hospital while, to make matters worse, a similar number died in another city hospital. While yesterday Health Minister Surya Kant Mishra insisted the deaths were normal and the matter was being politicised, today Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya called the deaths at B.C. Roy — 18 in four days — as ‘‘terrible and agonising’’. Talking to newspersons here after visiting the hospital in the evening, where he met parents of the children and the hospital management, he said he too had a conscience and was not trying to hide the truth. ‘‘What happened at the hospital is terrible and painful and we are deeply concerned and sorry.We are worried about the incident. Even if one child dies, that is agonising.’’ But what may have provoked the government into action was the death, seemingly unrelated, of three children at another hospital, Neelratan Sarkar Medical College Hospital, today and the media glare it attracted. ‘‘Can’t children die in a hospital? These are all usual deaths and I can’t understand why you people have rushed here,’’ asked its exasperated Superintendent, Shyamal Kumar Rudra, of milling electronic and print reporters outside. Like the B.C. Roy Superintendent Anup Mandal (who incidentally got a gag order today after his outburst against the government yesterday), Rudra too cited overcrowding of hospitals as the main problem. ‘‘We have 50 beds in the Paediatrics Department but we have 82 patients.’’ Bhattacharya in fact admitted problems with the management of the B.C. hospital and said they were trying to sort them out. While he denied there was lack of supplies, he promised that henceforth there would be an adequate number of medicines, oxygen cylinders, plus other factilities. ‘‘We are also amalgamating three hospitals there to increase the number of beds. I have asked two assistant directors to be posted there,’’ he added. NHRC Chairperson J.S. Verma, who was in Kolkata, too took note of the matter and asked the state government about the deaths. This is apart from the state human rights commission, which has already sought a report.
