People's Democracy

B C Roy Children’s Hospital Management Revamped

DR. Surya Kanta Mishra, health minister in the Bengal Left Front government has announced a package of measures for the B C Roy Children’s Hospital. A referral institution of renown, the hospital suffers from chronic overcrowding as ailing children come to the hospital from places as far as Assam and Bangladesh.

The revamping was in the pipeline for some time now and is being implemented as per schedule. A section of the media in Bengal has pounced on the move to try to link it with the recent death of a few children in the hospital. The state chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee visited the hospital with Dr Mishra and said that the child deaths, while regrettable and immensely sad, was in no way related to either apathy or to any lacunae in equipment, life-saving or otherwise. The figures available with the health department of the Bengal LF government certainly point to the low rate of child mortality in the B C Roy Children’s Hospital compared to other hospitals in the state.

In the meanwhile, acting as per the recommendations of the two-member committee of enquiry, which looked into the circumstances of the child deaths in the hospital, the Bengal government has noted the lapses in management that would occasionally overcome the situation in this crowded hospital. The enquiry has clearly revealed that there was no dearth of either medicine or equipment in the hospital at any point of time. The health department has chosen to shift some of the present staff of the hospital and has filed chargesheets against them.