A patient in a critical condition had to be withdrawn from Calcutta Medical College Hospital last Saturday, after doctors refused to treat him.

The reason: His relatives questioned the doctors? directions to get pathological tests done at a particular private laboratory in Taltala.

Despite the intervention of the hospital superintendent and deputy superintendent, the doctors refused to treat the patient and he had to be taken away. The shocked kin submitted a written complaint to the hospital authorities.

Ramprasad Mondol, 25, a carpenter, was running a high fever when his friends and relatives rushed him to hospital on Thursday morning. Ramprasad is from Nurpur, in Ramnagar, South 24-Parganas, and was working in the city.

He was taken to the emergency ward and the doctors on duty, after preliminary investigation, asked his relatives to get his blood tests done at the Taltala lab. Its name was written on the back of the patient?s medicine slip (a copy of which is with Metro).

Trouble started after one of the patient?s friends questioned the diktat. ?All we asked was if we could go to some other lab instead of the Taltala one. This infuriated the doctors, who abused us and said the patient?s treatment would be our responsibility if we failed to get the tests done by this particular laboratory,? said Avishek Sharma, a contractor who had employed Mondol. ?They refused to treat the patient and asked others on duty to abstain,? he added.

The patient?s condition worsened but the doctors refused to touch him. So, the relatives approached both the hospital superintendent and deputy superintendent, who rushed to the emergency ward. But the doctors were adamant.

?The patient?s relatives made a written complaint. They alleged that the house staff in the emergency ward had directed them to a particular private lab and threatened that otherwise, treatment would be hampered,? said A.N. Biswas, deputy superintendent.

?Two of the tests could have been carried out at the hospital. Since it was a Saturday, the hospital?s pathological lab was closed. The ward doctors said the Taltala lab was a reliable one and located near the hospital. They denied the other allegations,? he added.

The patient?s friend, Suman Ghosh, said they were afraid for his life and withdrew him from the hospital. Later, he was admitted to RG Kar Medical College.