The state clinical establishment commission on Thursday asked a centre that treats mentally challenged people to pay Rs 10.5 lakh in compensation for its negligence in dealing with a patient who had passed away in May.

Baul Mon, located in Jadavpur, has to pay Rs 50,000 to the attendant of the deceased and Rs 10 lakh to Rabindra Bharati University. The man, 61, used to sing and play the sitar and the commission said the penalty amount would be used to offer scholarship to a music student every year.

Majumdar was admitted to Baul Mon in October 2019 and he died in May next year. “They were treating him for his mental problems but they were not careful about his other health aspects. A few hours before the man passed away, his blood sugar level had reached 1,400, which is abnormally high. He was diabetic but he did not receive proper treatment for diabetes,” said retired judge Ashim Banerjee, the chairperson of the commission.

“The man died just because he did not receive insulin. The centre told us that insulin was not available in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Banerjee said. “It was also unfortunate that no one came for his cremation because of the pandemic. Only the attendant who used to look after him made arrangements for the cremation.”

The chairman said Rabindra Bharati University would have to put the Rs 10 lakh it would get from Baul Mon in a fixed deposit account and offer scholarship to a “needy, meritorious” student of music.

“We are doing this because Majumdar was a music lover. He used to sing Rabindrasangeet and play the sitar,” said Banerjee.

The patient’s cousins moved the commission after his death.

Sarmistha Ray, the managing director of Baul Mon, told Metro that they would appeal against the order.

“When the patient was brought to us in October, he was in a very bad mental state. He recovered very well. In between he had tuberculosis and recovered from it. We had repeatedly told his attendant to take him out of our facility and admit him to a hospital to treat his diabetes. But that person could not do that. There was no one from the patient’s family who would stay in touch. We did the best we could. We were not negligent in any way,” said Ray.

The commission also ordered the cancellation of the licence of Misba nursing home in Basanti, South 24-Parganas. The family of a patient who underwent surgery for appendix complication there had moved the commission. The man was transferred to another nursing home, where he died.

“They alleged the doctor who performed the surgery was a quack…. The police submitted a report saying that the hospital did not maintain any record of patients, other than those treated under Swasthya Sathi,” said Banerjee.

“We did not find any qualified doctor at Misba. We have asked the chief medical officer of health, South 24-Parganas, to suspend the licence of the nursing home….”

The commission also asked Columbia Asia Hospital to pay Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the family of a patient who died inside an ambulance while family members were trying to convince doctors and nurses to admit him.

“The man had been a patient of the hospital since 2011. He underwent dialysis at the hospital in the afternoon and fell sick in the evening,” Banerjee said.

When family members took him to the hospital, the doctor at the emergency ward said the patient had symptoms of Covid and he could not be admitted because the hospital lacked an isolation facility.