Hospital head blames state govt

The Superintendent of B C Roy Memorial Children’s Hospital, where the toll today rose to 15 with one more death, has passed the buck to...

The Superintendent of B C Roy Memorial Children’s Hospital, where the toll today rose to 15 with one more death, has passed the buck to the state government. He says his repeated warnings that the hospital was in a bad shape had gone unheeded.

‘‘I repeatedly told the state government about the dismal conditions here but no one paid any attention,’’ Anup Mandal said. ‘‘Had the government been serious, the tragedy could have been averted.’’

The only referral hospital in the state has 24 doctors and 175 beds, against a sanctioned strength of 250. But at any given time there are at least 300 patients vying for the doctors’ attention.

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But the Emergency section — that’s not even approved by the health department — is the worst. It has only one doctor, one nurse — who is present only during the day — and an attendant. It receives about 1500 patients daily! ‘‘Other hospitals have a full-fledged ward and staff attending patients brought in a critical condition,’’ said Dr Mitra, who works at the hospital.

And outside the Emergency section, there’s a telltale signboard where the hospital makes a clean breast of things that it doesn’t have — incubator, ICU, scanner, ultrasound machine and 24-hour pathology and X-ray and vaccine for hydrophobia. It also announces that no dental, ENT or skin treatment is available and nor would any head injury be treated.

Dr Mitra said that last year 11 doctors had treated 3.58 lakh outdoor patients. ‘‘Today I have treated 160 children in the past few hours and I am sure I cannot do justice in all the cases,’’ he admitted.

He pointed out that there were only three surgeons and no resident surgeon at all. ‘‘In other hospitals no paediatric surgery is done but there are surgeons who treat outdoor patients,’’ he said.

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‘‘We earlier had good ENT, eye and orthopaedics departments but they have been closed down because of lack of doctors and materials,’’ another doctor who requested anonymity told this reporter. ‘‘There is only one ventilator and one X-ray unit manned by one man each. How can children get timely treatment here? The government does not seem to care at all.’’

Superintendent Mandal said he demanded more staff before the three-member probe team of the state government, which met him this morning.

The state government, which stuck to its statement that the deaths were not unusual, said the government was trying to increase the number of beds. ‘‘We will merge B C Roy Polio Hospital situated nearby with this hospital and increase the number of beds,’’ Surya Kanta Mishra, state minister for health, told reporters. ‘‘And if the hospital requires more equipment, we will give those things too,’’ he added.

Meanwhile, political parties have taken to the streets. While the Trinamool Congress sat on a dharna demanding the resignation of the health minister, Congress activists gheraoed the Superintendent.