The Red Ribbon Express. A Telegraph picture

Siliguri, March 20: The Red Ribbon Express is here (Siliguri Junction station) to create awareness on AIDS, but the ground realities do not present a rosy picture of the healthcare delivery system in north Bengal.

The senior medical officer (SMO) of the only anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centre of the region at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital has been asked to join the School of Tropical Medicine in Calcutta following complaints from HIV positive patients here.

The project director of the West Bengal State AIDS Prevention and Control Society, R.S. Shukla, who was in Jalpaiguri yesterday, confirmed that there had been complaints against SMO, D.R. Nakipuria.

“We investigated the complaints and found that there were some irregularities. We then asked him to join services in Calcutta,” Shukla said.

Several NGOs, including Sangobaddho, a network of positive persons in the region, have alleged in written complaints that the SMO would persuade a section of HIV patients to visit his nursing home in Khalpara claiming that “treatment and diagnostic services (there) would be much faster than a government hospital”.

Sangobaddho secretary Sachindranath Das said: “Our members had written to the project director and the principal of the medical college about such activities. AIDS is a life-and-death disease and many patients followed his advice (in the hope that they would be better off). But the service they got in exchange for money was not adequate.”

Nakipuria admitted that the state AIDS society has asked him to join the Tropical School, but denied the allegations. “I have been giving honorary services to Jesu Ashram for several years. Why will I refer patients to my nursing home?”

As regards the transfer order, he said he was yet to decide. “As it is, the salary is not that good and I have several patients from Sikkim and Bihar.” Shukla said the state AIDS society had the option to terminate his services if the SMO did not take the offer. “It is a contractual appointment which can be terminated by either side,” he said.