The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission on Wednesday asked the Mukundapur and Salt Lake units of the AMRI Hospitals to refund Rs 5,492 and Rs 9,118, respectively, to the family of a 13-year-old girl who died at one of the units in February.
There was an alleged delay of eight hours to shift the girl to a critical care unit from one of the hospitals.
The regulatory commission said there was an alleged delay of eight hours in shifting Alina Debnath from the Salt Lake unit to the paediatric intensive care unit at Mukundapur.
The commission’s chairperson said they were trying to find out whether only the hospital administration was to be blamed for the child’s death or whether there was any medical negligence as well.
“This is essentially a case of medical negligence. But the negligence of the hospital cannot be ruled out. We spotted some problems related to the billing. After listening to both parties, we have kept the final order on hold. For the time being we have asked AMRI Salt Lake to refund Rs 9,118 and AMRI Mukundapur to refund Rs 5,492 to the patient’s family,” said retired judge Ashim Banerjee, chairperson of the commission.
Justice Banerjee said Alina, a resident of Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas district, was admitted to AMRI Salt Lake on February 26 evening with a seven-day fever.
“She was very weak and was not even in a position to walk. She was advised admission jointly under an ENT and a paediatrician,” Justice Banerjee said.
At night, Alina developed complications. It was decided that she would be shifted to a paediatric critical care unit.
The Salt Lake hospital did not have the facility but it arranged for a bed for Alina at the Mukundapur unit, which has a paediatric intensive care unit, said Banerjee.
“But there was an alleged delay of eight hours in shifting her. She was admitted to the Mukundapur unit at 5.30pm. The girl passed away early on February 28. The hospital has cited several reasons for this (alleged delay) but we were not fully satisfied. We have heard both parties and kept our final order on hold,” Justice Banerjee said.
Alina was covered by medical insurance but apparently the hospital did not extend the required benefit to her because she was discharged from the first hospital within “less than 24 hours”.
“The patient’s relatives had to pay the hospital’s bill separately. By the time the patient was discharged, 24 hours had passed since her admission. The hospital has not given any reasonable explanation on this as well,” he said.
The Telegraph contacted the AMRI authorities but they did not give any formal reaction.
“We have communicated to Justice Banerjee a number of times that the discounts are valid only for cash patients and not for the insurance patients,” an official of the hospital said on condition of anonymity.
Harassment complaint
A young woman has alleged that a man cheated her with the promise of marriage concealing the fact that he was already married. She has also complained that he circulated her photograph, which he allegedly took without her knowledge or consent, and phone number on social media.
A case has been drawn up under the IPC section related to cheating and under the information technology act. The man was not arrested till Wednesday evening.
Held with guns
Police arrested Dinabandhu Halder from Kultali in South 24-Parganas late on Tuesday and seized four country-made single-shot pipeguns from him.
Halder was picked up during a raid to flush out illegal arms and ammunition. The police said he was planning to sell the guns to a buyer at an undisclosed price.