http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111214/jsp/calcutta/story_14877325.jsp

Heckle hastens AMRI closure  'Let me deliver justice first'

OUR BUREAU

AMRI Dhakuria was forced shut on Tuesday evening after employees worried about their jobs heckled Mamata Banerjee during a surprise visit, triggering a free-for-all that culminated in a mob ransacking the main hospital lobby. The 14 patients undergoing treatment in the main wing, including seven in its intensive therapy unit, were hurriedly shifted to other facilities after Mamata's visit brought to the fore the swelter of discontent among employees of a hospital that has come to represent everything that is wrong with private health care in Bengal. The Telegraph had reported on Tuesday that the closure of AMRI Dhakuria was imminent, though few had expected that to happen by evening. The chief minister had arrived unannounced at the hospital around 11.30am, on her way to a Calcutta police programme. She first went to the gate of Annexe I, where 90 people had choked on toxic fumes emanating from a basement fire early last Friday. After speaking to the police personnel deployed there, Mamata entered the main building and walked up the steps straight to the third floor to enquire about a missing patient whose family had sought her intervention. "I came here to see someone and I found him," she said as she walked down a little later, only to run into a group of around 50 employees who demanded that the government protect them from possible loss of employment in the wake of one unit of the hospital being shut down. Witnesses said they overheard Mamata saying there was little she could do about it as AMRI was a private enterprise and it was the hospital management's decision whose services to retain. Her reply triggered a barrage of snide remarks, one of them being that the chief minister was "running away". An expletive followed, at which Mamata retorted: "Lajja kore na etogulo lok khun kore?(Aren't you ashamed having killed so many people?)…. (AMRI) Management to chakrir byabostha korbe bolechhe (the management has assured you about jobs)." When the shouting continued, the chief minister said: "Amay bichar korte dao, tomrao bichar paabe (Let me deliver justice first, you will also get justice)." A crowd had milled outside the hospital by then. She interacted briefly with them, saying it was the hospital administration's responsibility to relocate the employees to other facilities owned by the institute. "I don't think they (the protesters) wanted to act this way with me, they were provoked by the management," she said. Minutes after chief minister's convoy left the area, members of the hospital staff attacked the camera crew and reporters of three Bengali news channels. Around 20 cops and a group of 30-odd residents of the area came to their rescue. The protesters next blocked Gariahat Road for around 10 minutes, dispersing only when residents threatened them. Vandalism followed with a mob smashing the glass front of the building's front lobby. Hospital officials started evacuating the patients shortly after, shifting them to AMRI Salt Lake and the institute's woman and child unit in Mukundapur, on the Bypass. Nine patients were shifted out between 3pm and 7.30pm, accompanied by family members. Some family members were in two minds about the evacuation. Minati Ghosh said she feared her sister-in-law's condition would worsen if she were moved out of the intensive care unit. "She is 78 and suffering from pneumonia. Who can guarantee that nothing will happen to her while being shifted?" Minati demanded. Mohan Chandra Ghosh had called his grandson on hearing glass being smashed from his hospital bed. "I got scared and called my grandson to ask him to arrange for me to be shifted from this hospital immediately," said the 56-year-old, who had been admitted on December 4 following a motorcycle accident and had his left leg amputated from the knee. In the evening, the AMRI authorities pasted a notice on the walls of the hospital that states: "Management is thankful to all the employees who had helped and took risk of their lives to save patients of our hospital on 09.12.2011…. Employees are hereby also informed that the salary payments shall not be in any way affected and they will be getting their salaries and dues as always." Governor's visit Governor M.K. Narayanan, who was out of station when Friday's fire tragedy occurred, visited AMRI Hospitals in Salt Lake around 7 on Tuesday evening to enquire about the condition of the patients shifted there. He also wrote to senior fire department officials, asking them to meet him at Raj Bhavan on Wednesday to discuss the state's preparedness for fire-related emergencies.