People's Democracy

Children’s Death Not Caused By Apathy: Buddhadeb

B Prasant

FOLLOWING a visit to the B C Roy Children’s Hospital, Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has said that the death of ten children from mortal diseases on September 1 was not caused by any apathy on the part of the hospital authorities. The state Left Front government’s health minister, Dr Surya Kanta Mishra accompanied Buddhadeb to the hospital.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharya expressed his deep sorrow at the death of the children and said that the demise of a child was an appalling occurrence in any circumstances. However, as he pointed out, such a terribly sad event must never be utilised as a peg to hang one’s political antagonism on.

Speaking to the media at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan, state secretary of the CPI (M), Anil Biswas exhorted upon the likes of the Trinamul Congress to desist from the adventurous moves they were making to create a stalemate at the B C Roy Children’s Hospital.

A section of the Trinamul Congress leadership, occasionally accompanied by their supremo, Mamata Banerjee, has been organising noisy and abusive demonstrations inside the hospital premises, accusing the state government of "negligence" and the hospital authorities of "apathy." Loudspeakers have been put up close to the emergency ward of the hospital and anti-Left Front propaganda carried out with little consideration for the hundreds of seriously ill children being tended to inside.

Speaking to the media later on at the Writers’ Buildings, chief minister Bhattacharya stressed on the need to further expand the services and facilities on offer at the B C Roy Children’s Hospital by an addition of 200 more beds to the 250 that already exist there.

To cope with the virtual flood of child patients, who often come from places as far away as north eastern India and Bangladesh, the management of the hospital is being streamlined and an officer in the rank of additional director has already been deputed to the B C Roy Children’s Hospital with the responsibility of bolstering up the management.

MISHRA REFUTES

CHARGES

The death of ten children at the B C Roy Children’s Hospital has not been caused by any remiss or negligence on the part of the hospital authorities. The deaths were not caused by an absence of sanitation either. Moreover, the rate of children mortality at the hospital concerned remained the lowest in the entire state. This was stated by Dr Surya Kanta Mishra, health minister of the state Left Front government while refuting charges made by a section of the Trinamul Congress about "governmental apathy’ and lack of healthcare causing ten children to die on Sunday, September 1.

Dr Mishra has said that the slight overcrowding that occurred at the B C Roy Children’s Hospital was the direct fall out of the fact that it was a "referral" Hospital where acute and emergency cases were routinely sent by other hospitals. "We are not in the habit of refusing patients on grounds of accommodation in such circumstances," was how the state LF Health Minister would put it.

Mishra also nailed the accusation of some Trinamul Congress leaders that there was an inadequate supply of oxygen cylinders in the hospital. "Eighty such cylinders were in use on September 1 while the hospital kept ready 200 more cylinders," said Dr Mishra.

Aided and abetted by a section of the corporate visual media, a section of the state Trinamul Congress leaders have recently been making a nuisance of themselves. They have heckled the superintendent and the medical staff of the B C Roy Children’s Hospital and have verbally abused them in a vulgar manner for an alleged lapse on their part, which, these worthies kept saying on camera, had "caused the children to die."

The media barons themselves were not to be left behind. They have chosen to raise a hue-and-cry about the concerned hospital being the state-run institution with the highest rate of child mortality. Figures released by the Department of Health tells a vastly different story, the figures have not been challenged by the corporate media until date.

Child Mortality Rate In State-Run Hospitals In West Bengal 2001

Source: Department of Health

Govt. of West Bengal)