Protesting against the alleged delay an ambulance made just to shift a patient from the new building to the old, family members of a patient, Jinnatun Bibi, on Wednesday vandalized the super specialty hospital in Balurghat. Family members of the patient vandalized the entrance gate, furniture and the electronic sound system at the reception counter of the hospital, while they also wanted to attack the gatekeepers and the guard of the new building.
The Inspector-in- Charge of the Balurghat police station, however, rushed to the spot and managed to control the situation, it is learnt. Doctors have referred the patient to the Malda Medical College and Hospital for treatment. The health department arranged for an ambulance to shift the patient from Balurghat to Malda, sources said. Bibi, a resident of Deowr village under the Kumarganj block, was admitted to the Balurhat hospital on Sunday. According to hospital sources, she was admitted with a history of high blood pressure and convulsion. “Dr PK Sarkar on Monday started the treatment and she gave birth to a baby.
Following her delivery, she became weak. She felt unconscious on Tuesday night. Dr Sarkar then decided to shift her to the Critical Care Unit. As she was being shifted to the CCU this morning, there was a delay in the ambulance service,” hospital sources said. “Family members then went on the rampage at the hospital.
They were waiting for an ambulance to shift their patient to the CCU at the old building. The ambulance was unable to reach even after a one-hour wait. Relatives of the patient were worried and repeatedly enquired with the staff and the guards about the ambulance. After receiving no convincing answer from them, they started damaging the infrastructure there.
Staff and guards at the reception counter tried to convince them but failed,” a hospital staff said. A relative of the patient, Md Akram Ali Sha, said, “The condition of the patent was serious. We stood waiting at the main gate for more than one hour, but nobody was there to help us.” “We tried our best to convince the relatives of the patient, but they were very angry and they attacked us.
We immediately informed the Balurghat police and the hospital Superintendent,” the supervisor of the new building, Swapan Saha, said. Chief Medical Officer of Health, Sukumar Dey, said they did not file an FIR against the family members on humanitarian grounds. “We rather managed to arrange for an ambulance free of cost to shift the patient to Malda for better treatment. I will look into the ambulance delay,” he said.