West Bengal hospitals need two years to match private facilities, says CM Suvendu Adhikari

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday said it would take at least two years to upgrade infrastructure in state-run hospitals to match the facilities available at private hospitals.

His remarks came amid criticism over the transfer of patients injured in the Chorbagan Durga Puja stampede to a private hospital in Kolkata.

Nineteen people died in the stampede at the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja pandal on October 17. 

Doctors initially took several injured people to Kolkata Medical College and Hospital, and later transferred 14 to a private hospital near the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass.

The decision to shift the patients to a private facility drew questions from sections of the medical community.

Reviewing the situation at the Swasthya Bhavan control room on Tuesday evening, Adhikari defended the move, saying the government had prioritised preventing further casualties.

‘Many people questioned why we sent the injured from Chorbagan to an expensive hospital. We wanted to provide the best possible treatment. We sent them to a private hospital because it had better facilities than Kolkata Medical College, so that there would be no further loss of life after the 19 deaths,’ the Chief Minister said.

He added that no further deaths had occurred after treatment began at the private facility and maintained that the government had acted promptly to prevent additional casualties.

CM flags infrastructure gaps in government hospitals

Adhikari acknowledged shortcomings in the state's public healthcare infrastructure, citing the lack of allergy testing facilities as an example.

‘Bringing services at government hospitals on a par with private hospitals will take us two years. Even 80 years after Independence, West Bengal cannot conduct allergy tests. Patients have to be sent to Mumbai. I have personally experienced this. We are taking the necessary steps to address the problem,’ he said.

The Chief Minister also said government medical teams had been deployed at major Durga Puja celebrations across Kolkata following the stampede.

He thanked doctors and healthcare workers who canceled their Puja holidays to help with medical arrangements.

RG Kar protest figure criticises healthcare situation

Debashis Haldar, one of the prominent faces of the RG Kar movement, criticised the condition of government hospitals and alleged that the availability of essential medicines had deteriorated following the change of government.

Haldar said infrastructure shortages had persisted under the previous administration but alleged that the situation had worsened under the new government.

He claimed that the supply of several essential medicines had declined and that he had raised the issue with the health minister.

He also questioned the chief minister's meeting with Narayan Swaroop Nigam, alleging that Nigam had been associated with corruption during the previous government's tenure.

Haldar questioned whether the government could improve the state's healthcare infrastructure within two years.

Doctors seek guidelines on patient transfers

Utpal Bandyopadhyay, secretary of the Association of Health Service Doctors (AHSD), said the Chorbagan incident was unprecedented and called for clarity on the decision to transfer patients from a government hospital to a private facility.

Bandyopadhyay said the association had received different accounts of the transfers. According to one explanation, the families of the injured were given the option of choosing where they wanted treatment.

The association also received complaints from junior doctors who said their unit and department heads instructed them to transfer patients to a private hospital near the Bypass. Two patients were reportedly sent to SSKM Hospital.

He said the government should issue a clear protocol specifying when patients should be treated at government hospitals and when transfers to other facilities would be necessary.

‘If the state government acknowledges that the public healthcare system lacks the infrastructure to treat such a large number of patients, we hope it will take steps to address the shortcomings quickly,’ he said, adding that the government needed a clear plan for handling similar emergencies in the future.

Bandyopadhyay also said several patients transferred to the private hospital had been discharged and questioned whether government facilities could have treated some of them.

Medical Service Centre seeks concrete action

Biplab Chandra, secretary of the Medical Service Centre, said the government needed to move beyond assurances and demonstrate improvements in public healthcare.

He said previous administrations had also promised to improve healthcare infrastructure and called on the current government to implement measures that would benefit the wider population.