Chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said on Friday the government was “concerned” that various hospitals — private as well as government — were refusing to treat patients or asking them to bring Covid-19 negative certificates to get admitted.

Later in the evening, at a meeting at Nabanna with the heads of government medical colleges and the superintendent of MR Bangur Hospital, Sinha said bodies of Covid-19 patients should be “immediately shifted from the wards maintaining all protocols”.

Patients admitted to MR Bangur, one of the designated Covid-19 treatment centres in Calcutta, have alleged bodies were not being shifted from wards for hours. A video shot by a patient showing bodies lying on beds in a ward has gone viral.

The chief secretary also asked officials to ensure that the results of Covid-19 tests arrive within 12 hours of sample collection.

There have been allegations that results are arriving five to six days after the collection of the sample.

At the meeting, Sinha also asked the hospital heads to ensure no non-Covid-19 patient is refused treatment at any medical college or hospital.

“We have received reports that some medical colleges and hospitals (run by the government) in Calcutta have refused patients. This is unacceptable. We have zero tolerance on this. We have taken necessary measures. We will ensure that this doesn’t happen in the government sector,” Sinha had earlier said at a news conference.

He also expressed the concern that some hospitals were asking for Covid-19 negative reports from patients before admitting them.

Sinha requested private hospitals and doctors running private chambers to not refuse non-Covid-19 patients.

“If private hospitals stop admitting patients, a lot of people will be in trouble. We want to assure the private hospitals that the government is with them and we will extend all kinds of support to them,” he said at Nabanna.

Officials of several private hospitals said they never refused any patient suffering from any non-Covid-19 disease but a section of doctors was wary about doing procedures.

The CEO of a private hospital said some doctors were afraid of going near a patient who did not have symptoms of Covid-19 because of reports that patients suffering from the disease could be asymptomatic.

Sinha said he was in regular touch with the West Bengal Doctors’ Forum. He has asked state health department officials to talk to junior doctors and listen to their grievances and demands.