District hospitals under CM Mamata lens too

Kolkata: Expressing her concern over allegations of exorbitant billing by some private hospitals and nursing homes in the districts, chief minister Mamata Banerjee informed on Tuesday that she would now meet the authorities of the district private hospitals and nursing homes during her district tours.

Ms Banerjee often visits the districts and conducts administrative meetings to ensure its smooth functioning. “However, from now on the chief minister would also meet the heads of the private nursing homes and hospitals of the respective district,” a top official at the state secretariat Nabanna said. The official added that the meeting would be of similar nature to that of Ms Banerjee’s recent meeting at Town Hall with the top brass of the private nursing homes and hospitals of the city.

“A host of issues, including complaints of inflated bills, lack of transparency, forcing patients to undertake unnecessary medical tests and in some cases not releasing the deadbodies till dues were cleared would be taken up during the district meetings,” he said.

Meanwhile, the six-member-inquiry committee of the state health department, led by Dr Partho Pratim Mukherjee, visited Apollo Gleneagles Hospital in the afternoon to probe into the death of Sanjoy Roy due to alleged medical negligence by the private hospital.

During the two-hour visit its doctors questioned the hospital’s officials, doctors and nurses and also collected some medical documents related to Roy. Medical superintendent of the hospital Partha Bhattacharya has been summoned for questioning at the Phoolbagan police station.