In Kolkata, a 40-year-old man named Sushil Haldar died after a prolonged delay in receiving treatment following a head injury. A resident of Garia and an autorickshaw driver, Haldar began to bleed from his nose and mouth on a Monday night, prompting his family to rush him to the nearest government hospitals. Over the course of 10 hours, he was repeatedly turned away from three different hospitals due to a lack of available beds, ultimately leading to his death shortly after he was finally admitted.

Haldar's family first took him to SSKM Hospital, where they were told that there were no beds available in the emergency room. Despite his deteriorating condition, Haldar was then taken to NRS Hospital, where they faced the same issue. His family, desperate for care, then attempted to admit him to Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital (CNMCH), only to be informed that they too could not provide him with a bed. As the hours passed and Haldar’s condition worsened, the family became increasingly frantic, feeling there was no hope within the city's healthcare facilities.

After exhausting all options, Haldar's relatives decided to approach the Chief Minister's residence in Kalighat, seeking help. They received a letter of recommendation, which directed them back to SSKM Hospital. By Tuesday morning, they returned to SSKM and presented the letter, enabling Haldar to be admitted at last. However, his condition had worsened, and soon after his admission, he died.

Following his death, Haldar’s relatives staged a protest on the SSKM Hospital campus, accusing the authorities of negligence. According to them, the lack of timely care directly contributed to Haldar's death, arguing that he might have survived if he had received treatment earlier.

A doctor from SSKM Hospital explained that Haldar was admitted on Tuesday morning only after his family produced the letter from the Chief Minister’s office. Once admitted, his treatment began immediately, and he was transferred to the general surgery department, but he died soon after from what was later reported as a heart attack.

The incident has raised significant questions among medical professionals and the public alike about the effectiveness of the government’s new Central Referral System (CRS) for patient admissions. The CRS, introduced in several Kolkata hospitals just days before, is designed to streamline patient intake by providing real-time information on bed availability and facilitate referrals across hospitals. However, doctors have voiced concerns that the system may not yet be fully operational or effective in handling emergency situations like Haldar’s.

One doctor at SSKM, Dipayan Biswas, noted that CRS is intended for cases coming from outlying districts rather than urgent local cases. Biswas further added that the system is not yet fully functional, limiting its effectiveness in meeting patient demands within the city. Another senior doctor expressed frustration that bed availability information remains inconsistent and that the CRS had seemingly failed in this instance.

Manas Gumta, a former general secretary of the Association of Health Service Doctors in West Bengal, questioned why Haldar was turned away initially if beds were supposedly unavailable, only to be admitted after a letter from the Chief Minister’s office was presented. “The harassment of patients continues despite CRS,” Gumta said, calling for clarity on bed availability and for the government to address gaps in the system that prevent timely access to care.

(Input from various sources)

(Rehash/Yash Kamble/MSM)