What the CAG report said

In the past six years, CNCI never procured 23 of the 30 emergency medicines identified by its own drug committee. The other seven drugs were not available on 14 to 95 per cent of days. The institute procured just 10 of the 87 anti-cancer drugs approved by the committee.

What Metro found

In December 2007, amputation of a leg cost 17-year-old bone tumour patient Abdul Moti Mondol’s family — which is below poverty line — over Rs 20,000. Both Mondol, from Murshidabad, and Masim Ali, who hails from a similar background in Burdwan, had to shell out Rs 6,000 last week to buy medicines for his chemotherapy.

Both Mondol and Ali had been allotted “free beds” at the CNCI, making them eligible for free medication, subject to availability.

Patients at the Hazra institute complain that they have to buy their own medicines — a direct consequence of the institute not buying drugs approved by its committee.

What the CAG report said

Lackadaisical management of the hospital has led to a deterioration of patient care services.

What Metro found

Inadequate seating arrangements for outdoor patients forces most of them to squat on the floor. The washrooms are unclean and the stench unbearable. Patients are known to wait for hours without any proper information about when treatment will begin.

What the CAG report said

The CNCI had refused to take in a number of patients who had been advised emergency admission despite the availability of 11 to 18 beds.

What Metro found

Metro had reported the death of 75-year-old Rajpati Devi on February 28 after being refused entry by guards at the gate. The aged woman from Kharagpur lay on a footpath outside the cancer institute throughout the night. She had been referred to CNCI by NRS Hospital but the men at the gates did not allow her son to enter the premises and consult a doctor.

What the auditors missed

Metro found out a host of other shortcomings at the premier cancer institute in town.

During chemotherapy, patients with cardiac problems could suffer a relapse, but many wards of CNCI do not have emergency medicines, said a source at the hospital.

Doctors attending to “outdoor” patients never arrive on time and almost always leave early. “Last month, I had to wait for nine hours with my crippled son — from 8am to 5pm,” said Abdul Moti Mondol’s 65-year-old father, who is unemployed and ailing.

The boy was sanctioned benefits under the National Illness Assistance Fund (NIAF) to sponsor his chemotherapy after his plight was brought to their attention. The same facility was not provided to the patient when his leg had to be amputated in December. His father had to beg and borrow to meet the expenses. “I sold my last fishing net for Rs 900 so that I could bring my son here for the chemotherapy,” said Abdul Ali Mondol.

The lone ambulance belonging to the hospital — in urgent need of repair — has been lying unused for more than two years. Bought in 1996, it now gathers dust in the CNCI parking lot. The interiors of the institute are crying out for renovation, but the authorities chose to give the exteriors a facelift last month.

Directorspeak: CNCI director Jaydip Biswas acknowledged that lack of stocks “sometimes” came in the way of providing free medicines. “A recent standing purchase committee meeting has approved purchase of all drugs on the list. The effects will be felt in a couple of months,” he said.

On repair and renovation, Biswas said preliminary talks were on to replace the ambulance and work inside the institute would soon begin in a phased manner.

— G. S. Mudur and Rith Basu