Kolkata: Family members of some patients — who have died during the ongoing junior doctors’ agitation — alleged that their dear ones may have been alive had they received proper treatment at the various govt hospitals. They appealed to the junior doctors to return to work.
Sujit Acharya from Berachapa in Deganga said he had taken his 14-year-old daughter Sangita to Barasat sub-divisional hospital after she complained of severe stomach and chest pain.“We waited for over four hours but she could not be admitted. We then took her to a private hospital where she died a few days later. I plead with the doctors to resume work so that another father does not lose a child,” he said.
Kabita Das from Hooghly’s Konnagar, who has been in the news over allegations that her son, Bikram Bhattacharya, who had met with an accident, did not receive treatment at RG Kar and had bled for three hours, said she had first taken him to a govt hospital in Serampore from where he was referred to RG Kar. “I searched for doctors at the OPD and the trauma care unit. But none was in sight. My son died after waiting for three hours. We all want the RG Kar victim to get justice but I also want justice for my son who died without receiving treatment,” she said.
Abdur Rauf, whose brother Safikul Islam died after an accident, said he had taken him to Barasat hospital from where he was referred to Kolkata. “There was no doctor at SSKM or NRS. We finally took him to a private hospital in Barasat where he died a few days later,” he said.
The service doctors forum, in a press statement, said the deaths were unrelated to the junior doctors’ stir, pointing out that senior doctors had been working continuously to keep the healthcare services afloat. They also pointed out that out of 29 deaths that had been alleged, 23 had taken place in govt hospitals where junior doctors don’t have a role to play.