Suvendu vows to weed out tout culture from Bengal’s healthcare facilities

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday announced a crackdown on hospital touts, among a series of measures to strengthen the state’s public healthcare system.

Adhikari visited Swasthya Bhavan, the state Health Department headquarters and announced that a central control room has been set up to monitor government hospitals across the state to identify the presence of touts operating within the premises.

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“We have to remove the tout culture from hospitals,” he said, adding that the control room would enable authorities to keep round-the-clock watch and take prompt action against middlemen.

The Chief Minister also announced measures to improve the safety of doctors, nurses and other healthcare personnel. He said health workers would be issued identity badges to facilitate easier identification.

Sources said relatives of patients, kitchen workers and other peripheral staff at hospital will be issued colour-coded bands to help identify them.

To bolster emergency medical services, Adhikari also announced the setting up of a 250-bed trauma care centre at SSKM Hospital. He also directed officials to construct covered waiting sheds for relatives accompanying patients at government hospitals, with each facility expected to cost around Rs 25 lakh.

“We plan to add around 250 more beds at the SSKM Hospital. This will be completed before Durga Puja,” Adhikari said, adding that the number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds would also be increased to 200 from the existing 112.

Expressing concern over burn care facilities, Adhikari said specialised treatment infrastructure across the state’s hospitals require urgent improvement.

“The burn units in our state are weak. There are only 60 beds at the burn unit at SSKM. We need better doctors and better facilities at the burn units across state-run hospitals. I realised this from my experience after the under-construction warehouse collapsed in Taratala. Our exisiting health facilities will face a challenging time and will not be able to handle the situationin case of a big calamity or accident,” he said.

The Chief Minister also claimed that no new private healthcare unit had come up in Bengal in the past 15 years. “We have managed to ensure that 10 per cent of beds are now available for poor patients,” he said.

Adhikari said the proposed Adani Hospital in New Town would have a capacity of 2,000 beds, of which 1,000 would be reserved for free treatment of economically weaker patients, while the remaining 1,000 would be private beds.