Rajpati Devi lies dead outside the CNCI gate. A Telegraph picture

“Mujhe ek achha sa doctor dikha de (Take me to a good doctor).” Those were the last words of Rajpati Devi, lying in front of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) gates that refused to open for her throughout Wednesday night.

And not being able to keep his dying mother’s last wish will haunt Chandrama Prasad Sharma for the rest of his life. The 32-year-old is now determined to take his battle to the state medical council and the state consumer disputes redressal forum.

“I could not do a thing. I begged and pleaded with the guards to let me take her to a doctor, but in vain... I will not allow the hospitals involved to get away with this,” the 32-year-old told Metro from Kharagpur.

Chandrama’s mother Rajpati Devi, 75, suffering from liver cancer, died after being denied entry into the Cancer Institute on Wednesday night. She had been referred there by Nil Ratan Sircar (NRS) Medical College and Hospital.

Her crime? She did not possess a registration card of the Cancer Institute.

Following the Metro report on Rajpati Devi’s death on the pavement in front of Chittaranjan, the first steps have been taken to amend the rulebook that debars patients not carrying a registration card. The card is only issued between 9am and 11.30am at the institute, from Monday to Saturday.

CNCI director Jaydip Biswas said on Friday: “I have asked the social welfare department of the hospital to send me a note. I will then call a meeting of all heads of departments, welfare officers and administrative staff members on March 5, after which we will issue official orders to doctors and security guards to attend to patients in dire need, even if they are not carrying registration cards.”

A senior health department official repeated what health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra had said on Thursday, that the matter would be looked into if a formal complaint was lodged by the aggrieved family.

“I have just cremated my mother. I will take a few days to revive myself before approaching the medical council and the consumer disputes redressal forums,” said Chandrama, who blames both hospitals for the death of his mother.

“If CNCI does not have an emergency wing, NRS should not have referred my mother there so late on Wednesday. And surely a hospital like CNCI should not deny entry to such a critical patient. These are the things I will highlight,” said Chandrama.

Rajpati Devi, a resident of Kharagpur, was diagnosed with liver cancer at the sub-divisional hospital there and referred to NRS, from where she was referred to CNCI. She reached the Cancer Institute at 8.30pm but the security guards did not let her in without a card.

And till the red tape binds the CNCI main gate, at least till March 5, any other critical patient would suffer the same fate. As a guard at the gate said: “We have instructions not to let in people without registration cards. The same thing could happen on any night.”