John Wilbert & Sarthak Kanjilall
Port Blair, September 16: A cancer patient namely Mrs. Gulabi Bibi, 67 years referred to Adyar Cancer Institute by the Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital, Port Blair was allegedly denied instant treatment after the attendants refused to pay money for the operation.
“If we are not paid the operation cost, the patient will have to wait for another 10 days for the operation as there is no bed available for the patient,” the above statement was given by the authorities of Adyar Cancer Institute to the attendant of the patient.
As per the daughter of the cancer patient, the hospital authorities even denied giving the medicine and other minimal stuff required to the cancer patient for surviving.
On the first day that the patient with her attendant reached the hospital, the Adyar Cancer Institute charged an amount of Rs 1025 for the receipt, and since then not even once, the doctor touched the patient.
“The doctor just came and asked whether we want to go for the operation and when we gave a green light he asked for operation charges to which we denied as we came under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme,” said the daughter of the patient.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha over the phone, the attendants of the helpless patient said that they are staying in the lodge nearby the hospital, and per day they are spending an amount of Rs 600 for staying.
“We haven’t got any support from the authorities of GB Pant Hospital even after several requests and because we cannot stay here anymore due to financial problems, we are planning to move back to Port Blair tomorrow, if our ticket is confirmed,” said the attendant of the patient.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, Mr. Sanjay Meshack, PBMC councilor who was approached by the attendants of the patient said that he has raised the issue with concerned doctor, who looks after the referred patient but this yielded no result till now.
“I request the administration to have a help desk at mainland for the patients who suffer enormous difficulties in the referred hospitals going for treatment under the various government schemes, so that they have someone to approach,” said Mr. Meshack.
Mr. Meshack also questioned why the authorities of Hospitals at Port Blair don’t monitor the status of the patient referred to the concerned hospital in the mainland?
The administration must answer why such a kind of treatment is given to the patients referred to the mainland under government schemes? Why is there no one to monitor the issues pertaining to the patients of these Islands?
Will the Andaman Administration take the responsibility if any untoward incident occurs due to such a lapse as it is with the current case, where the patient is returning back without going through any kind of treatment?
