It is a measure of the enormity of the problems that plague West Bengal’s health sector that the Chief Minister deemed it necessary last Tuesday to pay what they call a “surprise visit” to the SSKM Hospital, once one of the premier referral hospitals in the country. But that was in the legendary Dr BC Roy’s time when the establishment was known as PG (Presidency General) Hospital ~ a landmark in the city that was once British India’s capital.

The Chief Minister’s was more than a routine visit. It is a tragic comedown that over time, the hospital has been in the vanguard of the sick parade that masquerades as healthcare to the almost incredible extent that touts at SSKM have arrogated to themselves a free hand to run a parallel administration, reducing doctors to helpless onlookers.

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Such departments as the admissions desk and the counselling centres are increasingly being reduced to virtual irrelevance. Which primarily was the raison d’etre of Mamata Banerjee’s visit and the verbal demarche to her health department officials for their “failure” to rein in the touts who arrange for admission, even emergency treatment.

It needs to be underlined that this is not a uniquely SSKM menace. Touts are thriving in all or nearly most state hospitals, and the canker would scarcely have permeated the system unless they were hand-in-glove with the hospital staff. It is hard not to wonder whether the frequent refusal to grant admission or even provide emergency attention is contrived ~ to enable the touts “earn” a fast buck.

Their modus operandi is almost institutionalised across the state, and the express concern over SSKM reaffirms the truism that fish rots from the head. It is utterly revolting if the sick and the dying are at the mercy of middlemen, or of private establishments where the cash counter is the only middleman.

The Chief Minister, who has the Health portfolio under her belt, was suitably explicit on the issue ~ “Touts continue to do business by fleecing money from the poor for services that are meant for them.” That rare expression of candour confirms the extent of the rot that she as the overarching authority has failed to check. It is a deeply entrenched racket and a firm crackdown is direly imperative.

Well and truly has hospital admission been reduced to a law and order issue, exemplifying the overwhelming failure. To call for “greater vigilance” is a feeble response to an ugly truth. Equally, the directive on proof of identity from patients from “neighbouring provinces and countries” urgently needs to be followed up. In large part, it accounts for the almost crippling pressure on the OPDs.

Patients, both local and offshore, can hope for a scintilla of medical attention only after the intervention of touts. The middleman has hijacked the system in which the outpatient’s departments function at a nominal charge.