KOLKATA: Doctors and nurses of a super-specialty hospital in Raiganj in Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal are in the soup for refusing to admit an HIV patient and allegedly abusing her. However, the patient was later admitted due to public pressure.
The 50-year-old patient resident of Raiganj was first treated at a private hospital in Kishanganj where it was found that she was infected by HIV virus. The patient's husband then took her to the emergency ward of the Raiganj super-specialty hospital on Wednesday for admission. However, doctors Rajat Debnath and Abhijit Sarkar allegedly refused to admit her after going through her medical history. Upon request for admission, the nurses allegedly threw away the medical reports and doctors verbally abused the patient and her husband and pushed them out of the hospital.
The patient and her husband then approached local councilor and Raiganj Municipality health department chairman Barun Bandopadhyay who then came to the hospital with members of Trinamool Congress Patient Help Desk and demanded to know the reason for not admitting the patient and heated arguments ensued. The patient was later admitted after intervention of hospital superintendent Goutam Mondal.
Doctor Rajat Debnath has been issued a show-cause notice over the issue. He was found to be working at the Emergency despite officially being on leave. However, the other doctor Abhijit Sarkar or the nurses have not been issued a show-cause notice. Dr Abhijit Sarkar claimed he was not in the emergency ward during the incident. District Chief Medical Officer Prakash Mridha said that a report has been sought from the hospital superintendent. "It is a good thing that the councilor and locals stood by the patient but the doctors and nurses who did this should change their attitudes towards the patients," North Bengal Medical College and Hospital Mental Health superintendent Dr Nirmal Bera said.