KOLKATA/BURDWAN: A day after
Kolkata Police arrested the co-owner of a
Burdwan nursing home along with its manager, the police indicated they will question doctors and resident medical officers of
Annapurna Nursing Home who were treating Madhyamik examinee Arijit Das. Das had died on March 15 on the way to Kolkata in an ambulance which had an AC mechanic posing as a doctor.
“It was their duty to ensure that the patient reached the hospital in Kolkata safely. Yet, their role is extremely suspicious. A raid in 2016 by police and health officials found not a single qualified RMO at the hospital. There was also a dearth of qualified nurses and paramedics, which led the officials to serve a closure notice. We will be looking into the qualifications of the accused. We will begin by questioning the three RMOs,” said an officer.
CMOH Dr Pranab Roy on Monday served a closure notice to Annapura Nursing Home for an indefinite period after a surprise inspection. The team, including Roy, Burdwan DM Anurag Srivastaava and ADM (development) Ratneshwar Roy, found no doctors or nursing staff even though six patients were being admitted. The team also found the nursing home running the ICU beds without approval. They were also shocked on finding that Arijit Das’s parents were charged Rs 7,500 for just two hours’ stay in the hospital. The team instructed the nursing home to shift the existing patients to aproper hospital.
Officers at
Purba Jadavpur said they have approached the
Medical Council of India which has agreed to provide technical assistance. The CCTV footages recovered from the nursing home are helping cops identify the people present at the hospital at the time when Das was being transferred to Kolkata, said sources.
Cops said they have found that the nursing home was heavily funded by some ambulance owners. “There are 294 nursing homes in Burdwan alone, a hundred of which are said to have ambulance owners as their financial patrons. Patients were brought here only to be referred to Kolkata within hours. The modus operandi was such that the ambulance owner ended up with the highest profit,” said a source.
Cops are also hunting for the local tout — identified as Vicky — who arranged the ambulance deal. “He was a man of humble means. However, for the past year, he has led a lavish life,” claimed sources.
At Purba Jadavpur police station, cops took help of forensic and medical experts to carry out an examination of the ambulance to ascertain whether basic life-saving equipment was present in the vehicle. The AC mechanic who posed as the doctor – Sk Sarfarajuddin – was taken to the spot where he was questioned about the journey to Kolkata.
Police sources said they are also searching for the second ambulance driver who had convinced the Das family to admit the boy to Annapurna Nursing Home.
