DHAKURIA DOSSIER |
December 9 Annexe I licence revoked after fire that kills 91
December 12 Management meets doctors to discuss temporary closure
December 13 Hospital hurriedly shut down after section of staff heckles Mamata Banerjee
December 23 AMRI directors sent to jail custody
December 27 Health department revokes all licences of AMRI Dhakuria |
The health department on Tuesday revoked the licences of all medical facilities at AMRI Dhakuria and slapped a second showcause notice on the hospital’s women and child unit at Mukundapur for alleged breach of land-lease terms.
“We have issued a shutdown notice and asked the authorities not to resume operations at AMRI Hospitals in Dhakuria until further notice,” director of health services Shyamapada Basak told Metro.
“If they want to reopen the unit, the authorities have to apply for clearance from the fire services department, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation and other relevant departments all over again. Only then can they apply for renewal of the medical licences, which we will consider,” Basak said.
The licence to run Annexe I of the hospital had been cancelled after 91 people, most of them patients, died of smoke poisoning during the fire in the basement of the building on December 9.
The rest of the hospital was hurriedly shut down on December 13, after employees worried about losing their jobs heckled Mamata Banerjee during an unannounced visit. The management had held a meeting with the doctors attached to AMRI the previous day to take a decision on shifting the patients elsewhere and suspending admissions for some time.
But with the licences for all facilities at AMRI Dhakuria now cancelled, the hospital is unlikely to reopen anytime soon, sources said.
“Several doctors have already quit,” said a senior official at Swastha Bhavan.
Neurologist Jayanta Roy, who has tied up with another private hospital, said patients who used to visit AMRI regularly were calling him and his colleagues to enquire where they should go for consultation.
Almost 50 per cent of the 300-strong nursing staff have also quit their jobs over the past fortnight.
Health department officials have made several visits to Dhakuria AMRI since the fire and seized documents in a bid to establish that the hospital had been violating norms. “There were more beds in the hospital than the number mentioned in the plan submitted to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation,” an official said.
The showcause notice slapped on the AMRI Women and Child Hospital at Mukundapur, off the Bypass, is a follow-up to the one issued earlier this month after the health department found out that the plot had been allotted to run a low-cost eye care institute.
“The land was allotted to Vision Care. There was no provision for a mother and child unit. The hospital’s reply to the first showcause notice isn’t satisfactory,” said the director of health services.
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