Patient dies as five state-run hospitals deny berth

A patient died after allegedly being denied admission by five government hospitals in the city.
Shyamnarayan Shah, 60, of Park Street area suffered a cerebral attack on Sunday evening and was rushed to the SSKM Hospital at around 10 pm.
A CT scan revealed he had a blood clot but he was denied admission due to scarcity of beds and referred to NRS Medical College Hospital.
Doctors at NRS Hospital denied admission and referred him to Calcutta National Medical College (CNMC) where the same fate awaited him since the hospital didn’t have a neuro-surgery ward, said the deceased’s relatives.
He was then shifted to RG Kar hospital as emergency but being a non-Covid patient, he was refused admission.
Crestfallen, Shah was taken to Bangur Institute of Neurology at around 5 pm. Doctors asked relatives to get a clearance from the adjacent emergency unit at SSKM for admission. Again, the circuitous search for hospital stopped at SSKM, where the patient had first arrived.
Till early Monday, Shah was found lying at SSKM emergency ward till 9pm allegedly without medical attention except IV fluids.
Relatives alleged the doctors were perplexed if it was a neuro-medicine or a neuro-surgery department case and was deprived of medical treatment for three hours.
Perturbed, the family rushed to an assistant super at SSKM at around 9.30 am who recommended his admission but it was too late. He died at round 11 am.
Dr P K Roy, medical superintendent-cum-vice-principal of SSKM, said, “It’s a very unfortunate incident and we’ll investigate exactly what happened with the patient.”