A 65-year-old Covid-19 patient succumbed to acute respiratory trouble while waiting in an ambulance for admission to Boroma Covid hospital at Panskura, East Midnapore, on Saturday night.

The death came an hour after he had been referred to Panskura by the Tamluk district hospital allegedly without a proper inquiry about bed availability.

The patient’s family on Sunday alleged that Tamluk district hospital superintendent Gopal Das had provided them with “insufficient information”, owing to which the sexagenarian was left waiting outside the Panskura hospital for over 30 minutes during which he had died.

“When we arrived at Boroma, which is 40km away from Tamluk, a hospital doctor checked on my father and informed us he was in an acute condition. But no beds were available and the only other option was Chandipur, 60km in the opposite direction,” said the daughter of the deceased.

“We were shocked at being refused admission at Boroma, but it is the officials at Tamluk who should have directed us correctly in the first place,” she added.

Sources said the patient had been admitted to the Tamluk hospital with respiratory trouble on Saturday morning and his rapid test results returned positive on Saturday night.

“When we were informed of the result on Saturday night, we requested the superintendent to let my father stay the night because it was late. But he assured us that he would be admitted to Boroma as soon as we arrived there. He said he had taken the necessary measures,” said the patient’s daughter.

The patient arrived at Boroma around 11pm on Saturday and died half-an-hour later.

The relatives had been told that there was no bed or ventilator available at the hospital.

Opposition parties have demanded Das’s transfer. “This man is unfit for his job. Even though the district magistrate has pulled him up for not doing his job properly, he has still not changed,” said CPM district secretary Niranjan Sihi.

BJP district secretary Nabarun Nayak said: “We demand his transfer immediately. This is a deeply disappointing incident.”

BJP sources said the party would organise protests at the hospital if Das was not transferred soon.

The family of the deceased hadn’t filed a police complaint till late on Sunday.

Asked, the Tamluk district hospital superintendent said he had acted “according to protocol”. “I contacted the Boroma hospital in advance. So, I am unsure why they were denied admission. We did not do anything wrong on our end,” he said.

Chief medical officer Nitai Mondal said the health department would launch an investigation.