| Sunday , December 28 , 2014 |
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1141228/jsp/frontpage/story_19267216.jsp#.VJ9CpsAKA
Madan is fit, system sick- No reason to stay at SSKM: Board | ||
| OUR BUREAU | ||
Dec. 27: A medical board has concluded that there is “no reason” to keep Madan Mitra, the Bengal minister arrested in the Saradha case, at SSKM Hospital. The report of the seven-member medical board came in the middle of persistent — and unanswered — questions whether the condition of the minister warranted treatment at a super-speciality hospital in a state where healthcare facilities for common people are woefully inadequate. Going by what is known till now, the Alipore jail hospital would have been more than sufficient to treat the conditions the minister has been complaining of, doctors not associated with SSKM said tonight. Another intriguing element was injected into the hospital saga in the evening: a plan to discharge him this evening seemed to have been called off mysteriously. Till late tonight, the Saradha accused was still at SSKM, with senior hospital officials unable to explain why and doctors saying they had never heard of a patient being allowed to stay on after a medical board had recommended discharge. A senior hospital source hinted at a directive from Nabanna to postpone the discharge but no one confirmed it. However, it was not clear whether the minister would be moved to the jail in the dead of night. Even if Mitra has to return to jail — where his current spell of remand runs till January 2 — sooner or later, he might still not have to spend time behind bars. Alipore jail sources said a bed had been readied for the minister at the prison hospital as soon as the SSKM medical board’s decision became known this afternoon. They said Mitra had complained of sleep apnoea (a sleeping disorder characterised by pauses in breathing) after being brought to the jail on December 19. “So, we won’t take any chances. Our doctors have recommended hospital admission,” a jail official said. “Two jail inmates will be assigned to take care of the minister’s personal requirements.” Life in a jail hospital is different from that in the cells, with no restrictions on movement and a soft bed, a fan, decent diet and better toilets on offer. Rajat Majumdar, a Trinamul vice-president and Saradha accused, has been at the Alipore jail hospital for over two months, with a fellow prisoner running errands for him. “Majumdar too suffers from sleep apnoea. The jail doctor recommended his admission and wrote in his prescription that he might require oxygen while sleeping,” another jail official said. The two-storey jail hospital has more than 100 beds and four doctors. The developments seemed to corroborate suspended Trinamul MP Kunal Ghosh’s allegations of discrimination between the way he and the other Saradha accused, such as Mitra and Trinamul MP Srinjoy Bose, were being treated. Mitra clearly prefers staying at the state-run hospital, where his writ runs, and had got himself admitted there within an hour of being remanded in jail on December 19 after a week in CBI custody. “A certificate that declared Mitra fit to be discharged was signed around 3.20pm by the hospital authorities and a huge police deployment was made. But later, the decision was changed for some unknown reason,” an SSKM source said tonight. Hospital sources said the minister was reluctant to be discharged and told the doctors he was still suffering from anxiety disorder, sleep apnoea syndrome and chest pain. Doctors said Mitra was to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of his brain today but it could not be done because he suffers from claustrophobia, an extreme fear of small and confined spaces. “However, the neurologists examined other reports and concluded that the MRI was not required immediately,” a doctor said. Pradip Mitra, director, Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, SSKM, had announced the medical board’s decision in the afternoon, adding that the authorities were preparing documents for the minister’s discharge. “The medical board has submitted its report and it feels there is no reason to keep the minister at the hospital now after conducting all the tests. There will be a medical review after one week,” he had said. “He had come with complaints of chest pain. After cardiology examinations, the doctors are of the opinion that there are no serious anomalies.” Mitra heads the patient welfare body at SSKM. He had earlier slipped away from a private nursing home — apparently under orders from the political leadership — to take shelter there when the CBI first summoned him for interrogation. “This is why Kunalda has alleged discrimination,” a source close to Ghosh said. Ghosh made the accusation in the CBI court and also in a letter to the judge. |
