SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, May 14: District health department nabbed a quack, who allegedly was running a nursing home in the name of Bengal doctors at Chirkunda near Jharkhand – Bengal border, around 45 km away from district headquarters.
Dhanbad civil surgeon (CS) Dr Shyam Kishore Kant raided the Chirkunda Life Line nursing home and found that hospital operator Dr Ujjwal Pandit was prescribing medicines to patients after check-ups.
When CS demanded his medical registration number, Ujjwal Pandit admitted that he has no MBBS degree and four doctors from West Bengal attend to the patients.
The CS raided the hospital after getting regular complaints from people about Chirkunda Life Line Nursing Home and Saurabh Nursing Home Nirsa on Friday. While a quack was found attending patients in Chirkunda Lifeline Hospital, the registration of Saurabh Nursing Home was found lapsed.
Moreover, in the inspection of OT, labour room and sanitation in the ward, it was found not up to the mark. The nursing home management also failed to give a satisfactory reply regarding the disposal of biomedical waste to the civil surgeon. The nursing home was found littered with medical waste. Both the nursing homes failed to provide a list of trained Paramedical staff too.
Rattled by the mismanagement and irregularities in nursing homes, CS Dr Shyam Kishore Kant directed the officials to slap a show-cause notice on them.
“If a satisfactory reply does not come from owners of nursing homes, the health department would cancel their license,” said the CS.
A senior official of the district health department said that it is a common practice of quacks in Jharkhand – Bengal bordering area to run health clinics in the name of Bengal doctors. In lack of proper monitoring, they flourish like fungus in the region and play with the lives of poor patients on both sides.
“It has come into notice that nursing homes and clinics are being run in the name of West Bengal doctors. An order has been issued for the identification of such health centres. Legal action would be initiated if any institution is found,” said the CS.
