Girl dies, health card heat on govt; Relatives of the 15-year-old allege nursing home rejected Swasthya Sathi card for dengue treatment

The dengue situation has remained a concern in Siliguri, with three dengue-positive persons having died in less than a week,

SNS, SILIGURI, 18 SEPTEMBER 2022: A 15-year-old child of Ganganagar in Ward- 5 in Siliguri, who had tested positive for the dengue virus, died in a private nursing home today. Family members of the deceased alleged that the nursing home refused to accept the Swyastha Sathi card on the pretext that the scheme was not meant for such treatment.

The dengue situation has remained a concern in Siliguri, with three dengue-positive persons having died in less than a week, and Ward-5 recording the highest number of daily cases. Two others were residents of ward 25.

Ward 5 has counted 19 cases in the last two days, 15 cases were reported on 17 September, and four today. However, ward 14 recorded the highest today with seven cases. A total of 56 daily cases were reported on 17 September, while the figure was 28 today, taking the total number of cases to 559 since January.

A class-X student, Twinkle Verma, had been suffering from fever. Her report of the NSI Elisa test had come out positive on 14 September. Her relatives said that before her; seven members of the family had contracted dengue. Her platelet count had dropped to 25,000, they said.

"She was tested dengue positive on 14 September. We had arranged platelets, as the nursing home told us to arrange for them. It appeared that she was recovering and she talked to family members over the phone from the nursing home bed at around 3.30 pm yesterday. Later, we came to know that her condition was deteriorating. We received a call from the nursing home in the wee hours today, asking us to he there as she had left us. We strongly believe that lack of proper treatment there led to her death," said her uncle, Santosh Kumar Varna.

According to the death certificate, the causes of death were viral hemorrhagic fever, mild pleural effusion and moderate and moderate ascites.

Mr Verma alleged that the Khalpara-based private health facility did not accept the Swasthya Sathi card.

"They told us that nursing homes do not accept the card for this kind of treatment," he said.

The health department, administration, Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) have held several meetings with nursing homes on the Swasthya Sathi card, while officials have made strong statements, including cancellation of licenses of nursing homes. However, all such meetings and claims scent to have failed to yield results. Patient families have often complained that most private hospitals in Siliguri do n of entertain th e card, the health insurance scheme of the state government. The scheme, for which the state government pays the premium, offers health coverage of Rs 5 lath per annum per family.

Meanwhile, ward-5 has virtually become the epicentre of dengue cases in the civic body area. Clusters of dengue cases have been reported from the ward. Despite the special vector control drives, the situation is yet to he brought under control. Residents of the ward complained about the mosquito menace and poor drainage system.

The Oppositions, meanwhile, took a swipe at the Trinamul Congress-led civic board.

"The mayor had claimed that the dengue situation would be under control within 18 days. l would like to know based on which astrology he made such claims what we are witnessing dengue deaths. We have visited nursing homes and found many people admitted therewith dengue and the hospitals are refusing to accept the Swasthya Sathi card, resulting in many people of low income groups paying from their own pockets. We are demanding that either the government make sure that they accept the cards or the corporation take the responsibility of the people suffering from dengue. Inadequate cleanliness has been a major problem in the wards," said the leader of the Opposition at the SMC and BJPcouncilor, Amit Jain. The mayor-in-council of health and water supply, SMC, Dulal Dutta, on the other hand, said that the health department did not inform them about any dengue related death today