KOLKATA: The Retired Judges’ Association (RJA), West Bengal, and the West Bengal Judicial Service Association (WBJSA) have written to the state government and Calcutta High Court to ensure proper treatment facilities for judicial officials. The move came in the wake of the death of a former judicial official, who had tested Covid positive, in an ambulance waiting for admission.
Paresh Chandra Barman, the retired judicial officer, was ferried to a private hospital from a nursing home in Howrah but was denied admission on grounds that Swasthya Bhavan did not approve of his admission. He passed away while waiting in the ambulance. “He was sitting in the ambulance and fell on the floor and died,“ said Prakash Barman, son of the deceased.
“My father was taken to the private hospital around 10pm and my elder brother Dhiman, who is the chief judicial magistrate in Andamans, had coordinated with the health department for the admission. Still, we failed to get him admitted. We are thinking of filing a case against the hospital,” Barman said.
“Initially, the hospital was reluctant to admit my father on the ground of non-approval from the health department and later, when the approval came, they said they had no ICU bed and wanted to refer him to MR Bangur hospital,” Barman alleged. He added that no doctor came to see his father during the golden hour. However, a version of the hospital authority was not available.
RJA secretary S Chattopadhyay, in his letter to the judicial secretary, has urged him to take up the matter with the health department.
Moved by the cases of admission denial, Calcutta HC advocate Subroto Mookerjee has filed a PIL. “These private hospitals mostly got free land from the government to provide treatment to critical patients. But during this crisis, they are not living up to expectations,” he said.
