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Friday, April 16, 2010
Private Indian hospital faces closure after riot
6:13 AM | 
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KOLKATA, India — An exclusive private Indian hospital faced closure Wednesday after it allegedly denied emergency treatment to a child who later died, sparking a mini riot.
Hundreds of protesters rampaged through the hospital in eastern Kolkata on Tuesday, causing 225,000 dollars of damage, after it was accused of turning away a seven-year-old girl who had suffered head injuries in a road accident.
The child's family and bystanders said authorities at Peerless Hospital demanded 50,000 rupees (1,100 dollars) to admit the child -- a vast sum for most people in impoverished India.
"If it's proven that the injured were denied admission because they failed to deposit the required money, the government will cancel the licence of the hospital," West Bengal state health minister Surya Kanta Mishrahe said.
All hospitals are required to admit patients requiring emergency treatment.
A few years earlier, West Bengal's Communist government took similar action against a private hospital after it refused admission to a patient who could not pay.
Police in Kolkata were also investigating whether there was case of causing death through negligence.
The seven-year-old child was among 10 people injured in a crash who were allegedly denied treatment by the hospital run by a non-banking financial chain, Peerless Finance and Investment.
In Tuesday's rampage, protesters smashed furniture, windows and computers, torched the restaurant and damaged operating theatres as they stormed through the ground and first floors of the four-storey hospital.
"They also destroyed the blood bank, the outpatient department, the pathology and X-ray units and the reception," hospital employee Elora Sengupta told AFP.
Terrified patients locked themselves in bathrooms and rushed to the rooftop terrace to escape the mob.
Police, who fired shots in the air on Tuesday to disperse the mob, later arrested 13 people for causing damage to the hospital.
S.K. Roy, head of Peerless Hospital, said the facility had shut down "for an indefinite period" after equipment and property worth over 10 million rupees (225,000 dollars) in the hospital was vandalised
Hundreds of protesters rampaged through the hospital in eastern Kolkata on Tuesday, causing 225,000 dollars of damage, after it was accused of turning away a seven-year-old girl who had suffered head injuries in a road accident.
The child's family and bystanders said authorities at Peerless Hospital demanded 50,000 rupees (1,100 dollars) to admit the child -- a vast sum for most people in impoverished India.
"If it's proven that the injured were denied admission because they failed to deposit the required money, the government will cancel the licence of the hospital," West Bengal state health minister Surya Kanta Mishrahe said.
All hospitals are required to admit patients requiring emergency treatment.
A few years earlier, West Bengal's Communist government took similar action against a private hospital after it refused admission to a patient who could not pay.
Police in Kolkata were also investigating whether there was case of causing death through negligence.
The seven-year-old child was among 10 people injured in a crash who were allegedly denied treatment by the hospital run by a non-banking financial chain, Peerless Finance and Investment.
In Tuesday's rampage, protesters smashed furniture, windows and computers, torched the restaurant and damaged operating theatres as they stormed through the ground and first floors of the four-storey hospital.
"They also destroyed the blood bank, the outpatient department, the pathology and X-ray units and the reception," hospital employee Elora Sengupta told AFP.
Terrified patients locked themselves in bathrooms and rushed to the rooftop terrace to escape the mob.
Police, who fired shots in the air on Tuesday to disperse the mob, later arrested 13 people for causing damage to the hospital.
S.K. Roy, head of Peerless Hospital, said the facility had shut down "for an indefinite period" after equipment and property worth over 10 million rupees (225,000 dollars) in the hospital was vandalised
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