Four private hospitals in Calcutta have been served showcause notices by the government for allegedly discharging patients diagnosed with swine flu without completing their treatment.

Apollo Gleneagles, Columbia Asia, RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences and BMRC in Barrackpore have been asked to respond to the notices within seven days, official sources said

A fifth hospital, Belle Vue Clinic, has been accused by the family of a swine flu patient of telling them that they would need to pay the rent for an entire floor if they wanted him to be treated there.

Arun Kumar Dutta Gupta, 75, died inside an ambulance on the Belle Vue campus before he could be driven to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Beleghata.

The state government said on Monday that no hospital, private or state-run, had the right to refuse treatment to swine flu patients.

"We have received complaints from seven patients in the four (showcaused) private hospitals that they were discharged the moment it was confirmed they had contracted the H1N1 virus," health secretary Moloy Dey told Metro.

"Our probe revealed that the hospitals had discharged these patients before the completion of treatment. They have been issued showcause notices and asked to explain why they did this."

Health department officials said 69 patients had been diagnosed with swine flu in the state this year, of whom five had died.

Twenty-five people are undergoing treatment while 39 have been cured at various hospitals, they said.

The rule-book states that any patient suspected to be suffering from swine flu should be first admitted and a throat swab sent to the ICMR laboratory in Calcutta.

According to the standard operating procedure for swine flu, the physician or hospital superintendent concerned should requisition the anti-viral drug Oseltamivir - brand name Tamiflu - from the health department for each positive H1N1 test.

"There is no way a hospital can discharge a patient midway through treatment. Only if the patient's condition is stable and the family gives consent can the patient be shifted to the Beleghata ID Hospital," a health department official said.

Sources said patients or their relatives could lodge complaints in writing with the director or deputy director of health services.

Complaints can also be registered over phone at 033-23576000/23330100 during office hours or faxed to 23575175. "We could set up a helpline if the number of swine flu cases increase," an official said.

The health department said most private hospitals were yet to create the required number of isolation rooms for swine flu patients.

Belle Vue Clinic has isolation rooms but still tried to get a critically ill patient shifted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital, his family alleged.

"The hospital discharged my father around 5.30pm on Monday. As soon as the ambulance started moving, he died," daughter Saswati Das said.

"When we had asked the doctor treating my father how he could be discharged in that condition, he doctor told us that we could book the entire floor to keep him in the hospital."

Dutta Gupta had been admitted to Belle Vue Clinic on February 19 and shifted to an isolation room the next day. "His immediate family wasn't consulted even once," Saswati alleged.

A Belle Vue official said the hospital followed protocol. "We kept the patient for two days even after the test was positive. His family was then asked to take him to the Beleghata ID Hospital and they agreed. We were shifting him under the supervision of a doctor when he died."

The four hospitals asked to show cause for allegedly discharging swine flu patients without completing their treatment said they had acted in accordance with the rules.

"We haven't received any letter from the health department. Once we receive it, we will reply to it. Right now, we have five (swine flu) patients in the hospital and are treating them. We haven't refused any case," said Rupali Basu, CEO of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals.

Columbia Asia said it didn't have the infrastructure to treat any infectious disease.

"We did refer a patient elsewhere a couple of days ago because we don't have isolation wards. We refer the patients to the ID Hospital even for chicken pox. This is for the safety of the other patients, their relatives and our employees," said an official of the Salt Lake hospital.

He said the hospital hadn't received any showcause notice from the government until Monday evening.

RN Tagore institute too said no such notice had come. "There are still two patients in the ICU," an official said.

Bengal's junior health minister Chandrima Bhattacharya on Monday made two appeals in the Assembly - one to private hospitals not to refuse patients down with swine flu and the other to fellow legislators to help create awareness about the disease rather than criticise the government.

"We have reports that some private hospitals have refused treatment to patients with swine flu. We would request the private hospitals not to refuse patients," Bhattacharya said.

To her colleagues, she said: "Please don't mislead the people of your locality by giving them the impression that state-run hospitals are not equipped to offer treatment to swine flu patients. By criticising the government unnecessarily, you are creating panic. Please don't do that. Instead of criticising the government, help us create awareness among the people of your locality on how to prevent the disease."

Two Opposition MLAs had complained that most hospitals in the state lacked facilities to offer proper treatment to swine flu patients.

Tarun Naskar of the SUCI alleged that none of the government hospitals in the state was adequately equipped to collect throat swabs in large numbers.

In her reply, the minister said the health department had sent an adequate number of kits for collection of samples to each hospital.

Bhattacharya asked the MLAs to explain to people in their constituencies that swine flu was an airborne disease that they could keep at bay by taking a few precautions.