Matri Sadan is aiming for a December reopening after two false starts and three years of lying in a limbo. 

The EE Block hospital was shut down for renovations in 2013. The civic body-run facility was formally re-inaugurated before the elections in 2015 but failed to open to public. Another opening was planned in early 2016 but nothing materialised. Now the authorities say it will happen in December, even if it means a scale down from what was promised.

Open and shut case

The then chief minister Jyoti Basu had inaugurated Matri Sadan in 2000. Primarily a maternity and gynaecological hospital, it struggled in the initial phase before opening branches like dentistry, pathology, eye and ear-nose-throat (ENT). 

A number of doctors and nurses, some of whom had retired from elsewhere, came on board and the hospital offered a 20-bed indoor service. Below-poverty-line patients could avail of outdoor facilities at Rs 5 and hire a bed for Rs 40 a day. 

“Even some councillors would come and get their treatment done here,” says consultant surgeon Gour Gopal Chatterjee, who became chief administrative officer in 2005. “We even operated two ambulances that would collect pathology samples from the added areas. The hospital had become a lifeline for the poor.”

Trouble started after the Trinamul-led board came to power. Their first meeting with the hospital authorities ended with party supporters abusing Chatterjee, who later resigned citing health grounds. 

In 2013, the hospital was shut down for renovation and when “inaugurated” in 2015, it was announced that it would be a 60-bed multi-speciality facility. 

Let alone indoor facilities, today even the outdoor patient department (OPD) is struggling. 

Grim reality 

A visit to the hospital last week saw the staff chatting amongst themselves or leaving to queue up at banks. The board outside had a list of more than 15 doctors but it’s an outdated list. 

Dr Sajal Sur, an ENT specialist whose name was on the list, said he worked at Matri Sadan till it shut down for renovation. “I would get lots of patients from the added areas but then it remained shut for too long and by the time the OPD reopened I had already joined elsewhere,” he says. 

Dr Indranil Guha Niogi, gynecologist and obstetrician, still visits the hospital. “When I joined in 2008 I would see almost 25 patients a day. But now no one comes to the OPD as the indoor unit is shut. No one would want to consult a doctor at one hospital and get operated by another doctor elsewhere,” he laments.

The medicine shop KR Lynch has been renting space at the ground floor of the hospital since 2006. “Our shop still caters to residents of the area but they mainly need medicines. When the hospital shut down we had to throw away boxes of saline and surgical items worth Rs 1 lakh as well as needle and thread worth Rs 2 lakh,” say the staff. 

Dengue tests are about the only service the hospital is able to provide now but even that is laid-back. Ramesh Bor, a

Duttabad resident, had to visit the hospital twice to get the test done. 

The first time he left after waiting for a doctor or a technician for two hours. “The next time they drew blood but said I’d get the report after four days. I didn’t wait that long and and got the test done at a private lab by paying Rs 1,000,” he said.

Promises to keep 

Pranay Ray, the mayoral council member in charge of health, says the hospital is about to restart operations. “If all goes as per plan, we shall reopen with 15 to 20 beds in the general medicine section by December,” said Ray. They had initially planned a 60-bed set-up. 

“Advertisements for the recruitment of resident medical officers have been brought out and we will take the interviews as soon as possible,” he said, adding that a new X-ray machine, a USG machine and a dialysis unit have been purchased. 
“The beds will now have piped oxygen supplied to them and the entire hospital will be air-conditioned. We had plans of constructing a wide-body lift but that work is yet to start,” said Ray.

Have you ever visited Matri Sadan for treatment? 
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