A day after the media reported about a sweeper dispensing treatment in a state-run hospital in the city, West Bengal Minister of State for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya said the media did not have the right to carry out investigations.
“I want to know why you went there. What suddenly occurred that prompted you to go there with a camera in hand?” she asked, lashing out at the journalist of a local television channel that had aired footage of the incident.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Ms. Bhattacharya asked, “Are you an investigative agency? Are you the CID [Criminal Investigation Department]?
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On Thursday, a sweeper in the SSKM Hospital was caught on camera giving stitches to a patient, who had suffered a head injury, in the emergency wing.
Ms. Bhattacharya said that instead of capturing violations of hospital rules on film, journalists should have reported the matter to the authorities instead.
“If you had filed a complaint then I would have investigated the matter,” the Minister said adding she would not have asked for any evidence.
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If the media was aware that the practice had been continuing for a long time, “why did you not inform us?”
However, she agreed that a Group D employee should not have been involved in treating patients and described the incident as “unfortunate.”
Following the outrage the incident has caused, the Health Department has directed the authorities of all State hospitals not to involve Group D staff in treating patients. “The medical officer on duty and the nursing in-charge of the emergency wing of SSKM Hospital have already been show-caused,” Sushanta Banerjee, Director of Medical Education, said.
In a similar incident reported during the day in another state-run hospital in Suri in Birbhum district, an outsider gave an injection to a patient, claiming that he had done so on the instructions of a doctor employed there.