The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission on Monday asked Midland Nursing Home to pay Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the family of an 18-year-old patient who was denied treatment in 2020.
The teenager was running a high temperature when he went to the nursing home. He subsequently tested positive for Covid and died at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital.
Justice (retired) Ashim Banerjee, chairperson of the commission, said the teenager’s parents first took him to ESI Hospital in Kamarhati, which referred the patient to Midland Nursing Home.
After being denied treatment there, the family went back to ESI Hospital, which sent the youth back to Midland. The parents then took their son to the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, where, too, he was not admitted.
The parents then sat on a hunger strike at the medical college, after which he was admitted. He died at the hospital, Banerjee said.
The youth’s family approached the commission narrating the entire incident. “ESI Hospital and Calcutta Medical College and Hospital do not fall under the jurisdiction of the commission. So we heard the complaint against Midland,” said Banerjee.
ESI Hospital and the medical college are run by the government. The commission hears complaints of negligence against private healthcare facilities.
The complaint was first heard in September 2020, when the commission had asked Midland to deposit Rs 5 lakh.
Midland moved the high court challenging the commission's order. The court had initially stayed the order, said Banerjee. Recently, the court referred the matter back to the commission.
Banerjee said neither party had anything new to say in the last hearing on May 15.
On Monday, the commission passed its order.
The Telegraph reached out to Midland for its comment. A woman who answered the call took down the phone number of the correspondent, but no one from the nursing home called back till late on Monday.