State library minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury expressed his disgust after he was denied X-ray by the Memari Rural Hospital in East Burdwan last evening, which eventually has triggered off row in the district as the opposition leaders have mocked the ‘fragile’ health infrastructure of the district hospitals.
Chowdhury suffered injuries in the lower part of his right leg after he suddenly lost balance and collapsed in the washroom at his residential house in Memari yesterday morning. Initially, he paid no heed to this, but after he started unbearable pain, he was taken to the Memari Rural hospital at around 7.30pm yesterday where he was attended by a physician. The physician suggested an imaging of the minister’s foot immediately. The hospital has an analog X-ray machine, but the imaging couldn’t be done as the operation of the imaging department was withdrawn for the day due to shortage of technicians.
The medical superintendent of the hospital, Dr Debashis Bala, said, “After our respective physician suggested for an X-ray, the minister expressed his desire to get the imaging done at our hospital itself, but this wasn’t possible as we don’t have adequate strength of technicians to run the department after 2pm everyday.” He said, “We plead helplessness.”
But, that annoyed the minister. Mr Chowdhury said, “This is such a big hospital where hundreds of patients come everyday. It’s equipped with necessary devices but those cannot be used at the time of requirement. It’s very upsetting. I’ll take up the issue and try to address the problem soon.”