It’s a rather rosy picture in West Bengal — if one goes by the list maintained by the State government — as far as the availability of beds in COVID-19 -designated hospitals is concerned. While in other States patients have to wait to get a bed, in West Bengal, it would seem, hospitals are waiting for patients to walk in. Many designated hospitals, in fact, show 100% vacancy.
The truth, however, is that a number of these hospitals — even though they do exist — do not yet have the infrastructure to treat COVID-19 patients and merely figure in the list of designated hospitals to add to the numbers.
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West Bengal has been in controversy earlier over the presentation of data: during the early weeks of the pandemic, the administration was accused of suppressing the number of coronavirus-caused fatalities by showing co-morbidities as the reason of death. It came under fire from the Centre for this reason; and now, when the number of COVID-19 deaths is being said to be reported correctly, the availability of beds appears to have been grossly inflated.
“I wouldn’t call this false information, I would call it misinformation. Many of the hospitals listed are proposed to be COVID-19 hospitals, but they are not yet functional (as facilities to treat COVID-19). For example, the TB Hospital in Nadia, Medicare General Hospital in Bankura, ESI Hospital in Gourhati — the list of such hospitals is quite long,” said a reliable source.
“And in some hospitals where COVID-19 patients are being treated, the number of beds shown by the government is much higher than the actual availability. Take, for example, the CMSDH [College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital, located on the outskirts of Kolkata]. The number of beds earmarked here for COVID-19 patients is only 270 or 280 but they are showing the capacity as 500,” the source said.
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According to the list maintained by West Bengal’s Health Department, CMSDH, as of Tuesday, had 270 of its supposed 500 beds vacant — too large a vacancy in a situation when the State is recording over 2,000 COVID-19 cases a day. Figures shown for many other hospitals are more telling.
Three of the five hospitals listed under Darjeeling have all their beds vacant: Medica Hospital (110 out of 110), Medica Cancer Hospital (50 out of 50), and Nivedita Cancer Hospital (64 out of 64). Likewise, TB Hospital in Nadia has all of its 300 beds vacant. In South 24 Parganas, five of the seven hospitals listed show 100% vacancy. In North 24 Parganas too, four of the eight hospitals on the list have 100% vacancy. The list is quite long, and such hospitals — with all their COVID beds free — are spread across the State.
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The Health portfolio in West Bengal remains with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Her junior minister in the department, Chandrima Bhattacharya, when contacted by The Hindu for a response to why many hospitals were showing 100% vacancy, asked the reporter to contact the Health Department. The Director of Health Services, however, was not available for comment.
