Central team pat on back for West Bengal's ID Hospital

KOLKATA: The two-member central health team that visited Beliaghata Infectious Diseases Hospital on Wednesday, heaped praises on the state’s nodal facility in its fight against Covid. “May this hospital continue to serve humanity with all zeal and sincerity”, the panel members wrote.
The tone and tenor of the one-pager stands in sharp contrast to those written by the inter-ministry central team (IMCT) after their recent visit to Bengal’s Covid facilities. The IMCT had faulted the state’s Covid hospitals and quarantine centres on several counts, prompting a sharp riposte by the Bengal government. They, however, had a word of praise for some private hospitals which had been acquired by the state to function as special Covid facilities. The IMCT did not visit Beliaghata ID hospital but had gone to the containment zones around it.
However, the signed note given to the hospital by the two central team members who visited the facility mentioned that the arrangements were ‘excellent’. To emphasize, the word “excellent” was written in capital letters. The letter by Aparajita Dasgupta, preventive and social medicine department’s director-professor of All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, and Lina Bandopadhyay, also a public health specialist at the same department of the institute, read, “I am totally floored with the arrangements, infrastructure and care meted out to the patients of IDBG. In one word, all is excellent.”
It also read, “It is one of the rarest hospitals providing food, transport and lodging to all who are involved with the case of Covid-19 patients. The hospital provided data within minutes because all was in their tip of fingers. The cleanliness, efficiency and sincerity of the hospital and dedication among the health personnel have impressed us,” they wrote. Bandopadhyay later told TOI that they had been visiting hospitals and various containment zones. She said that they had visited the ID hospital at Beliaghata on Wednesday and appreciated the way the hospital handled the patients. “Today we went to Borough VI (north Kolkata) as part of our field visit,” she said.
The team’s visit at the Beliaghata ID had lasted almost 40 minutes. They interacted with senior officials and Covid team members, including doctors Yogiraj Ray and Shekhar Ranjan Paul, who have been hand-picked by hospital authorities. The team enquired about the facilities, treatment protocol, data on number patients and about the recovered and discharged patients. “The team also wanted to know if we were facing any problem in managing Covid patients and how soon our critical care unit will start functioning. We told them that everything was on track apart from manpower shortage. The team expressed its satisfaction,” said Anima Haldar, principal.