Misra prescription fluffs pvt clinics

KOLKATA: West Bengal health minister Surjyakanta Misra seems to have put owners and managers of the state’s nursing homes in a moral dilemma, splitting the medical community into two.
His remarks have also brought to fore shortcomings of private hospitals, where officials admit that even basic requirements of the Clinical Establishment Act are not followed.
A day after Misra said nursing homes didn’t have the right to refuse emergency patients on monetary grounds and that the Act was sacrosanct, officials of private homes said they were contemplating closing down.
“It’s difficult to follow these directives. The Act makes it mandatory to have two OTs and a labour room.
Nearly 90 per cent nursing homes will be forced to close down if the Act is enforced,� said M.N. Dutta, owner of East Calcutta Nursing Home.
Chhaya Das, director of Harrington Nursing Home, agreed. “I feel we have to close down soon. The Act that Misra speaks of is impossible to follow. For instance, it suggests one government registered nurse for every five beds. With work in three shifts, this means we need to appoint three nurses for five beds. It’s financially unviable for a small place like ours,� she said.
Both Das and Dutta felt it was “unrealistic� to demand that nursing homes accept emergency cases irrespective of cost implications. “What happens if a case runs into thousands of rupees or a patient dies. Who takes the responsibility then of recovering the money,� they said.
General manager of Lansdowne Nursing Home P.K. Sil, however, differed. “It is our duty to tend to emergency cases. There have been cases where we have treated an emergency patient for four days without money. We also make concessions on bed costs and doctors fees for poor patients,� he said.
A senior general manager of one of Kolkata’s biggest nursing homes felt the same way.
“Ethically its mandatory for nursing homes to tend to emergency cases. But the minister must make it clear that when he speaks of accepting emergency patients he means only those institutions which have orthopaedic or cardiac units. Otherwise, his statements may be misconstrued by people and this may lead to cases of violence,� he said.