[VIDEOS] Bengal State govt hospitals yet to turn ‘special’

[VIDEOS] Bengal State govt hospitals yet to turn ‘special’

By Arnab Mitra

Barasat: Mamata Banerjee, while taking her oath as the West Bengal Chief Minister, repeatedly promised to improve the health condition of West Bengal. She proposed several super-speciality hospitals and fair-price medical shops to this end.

But the question is: Do the common people get this super-speciality treatment or is it only reserved for the 'higher class'?

In the two years since then, several fair-price medical shops have been set up and some government hospitals, such as the SSKM hospital, have been turned into super-speciality hospitals.

The exclusive videos by NewsGram, taken covertly in the Barasat State General Hospital, show the apathy of the patients and their families in state-run hospitals.

The above video shows how a patient is lying on the floor without proper treatment, with brokers and nurses threatening the patient party.

This video shows animals roaming here and there in the hospital. At times, they have even been found to share the beds of patients.

This video shows two brokers from the hospital fighting over patient beds.

The way patients are kept in corridors in the overcrowded hospital can be seen here.

In a recent incident last month, two newborn babies died of overheating in Calcutta Medical College and Hospital's Sick Newborn Care.

It is a bitter fact that the very place, which is supposed to heal the sick, becomes the cause of death for many, often simply due to unhygienic surroundings and negligence. Patients are cheated in various nursing homes and at times, the dead body is admitted to the ventilation department to loot the people.

Amita Agarwal, the MD of the Barasat hospital, smiled and said, "You know everything. But still, the condition of the Barasat Hospital is much better than the other district hospitals in Bengal."

However, this "better hospital" doesn't have a cardiac unit, no fair-price medicine shop, and the sorriest fact is that, the hospital, despite being the face of North 24 Parganas district, is dependent mostly on intern doctors.

Mithu Moitra, a relative of one of the patients, said, "My father was in a critical condition for an hour, but the hospital did not provide him a bed. Now, the broker is charging us money to give him a bed! This is Didi's super-speciality hospital."

The hospital super thanked NewsGram for the investigation and said, "I will be the first person to be happy if your investigation helps us improve the hospital's condition."

"Didi, please concentrate on the condition of your basic hospitals and improve them first, before making super-speciality hospital just before the assembly elections," said Barasat CPI(M) Zonal President Sunil Karmakar. (Image: sopan-step.blogspot.com)

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