BMCH: CONTRACTOR CURTAILS PATIENT'S FOOD FOR PROFIT
  

Bardhaman Dot Com News Bureau
Burdwan, 16 Sep 04 :
The diet supplied to the patients at the Burdwan Medical College & Hospital is under the mercy of the allotted food contractors. Although the government medical department have stipulated both quality & quantity of the food materials according to different health conditions of patients, the contractors at this district hospital seldom care to abide by it. The cooked foods as well as the raw materials are supposed to be weighed & checked by hospital's dietitian, the contractor being from a powerful lobby doesn't allow the hospital officials to conduct their random checks.


Unhygienic condition at the hospital canteen

The condition have worsened so much that the hospital super issued a letter to the contractor on 04.07.03 vide memo no. BMCH/3167/1(10) complaining about the condition. `It is observed for a few days that the condition of cooked diet supplying by you to indoor patients of this hospital is detoriating frequently' complained the super. He also instructed the contractor to abide by the terms & conditions of the tender strictly, but the scenario only worsened with time.

As per the hospital terms, a normal diet should contain 250ml toned milk, 700 gms fine cooked rice, 50gms of fish/100 gms of chicken (lunch) & 50 gms fish (dinner) along with other edibles totaling to 1836 Kcal everyday. Hospital sources inform that the contractor provides almost half of the allotted food to the patients and even replace the chicken & fish with poultry eggs curtailing the nutritional value of the patient. Not only the quality of food supplied is below standard but the cooking medium & environment is unhygienic. Hospital sources also complains that the nutritional supplements often prescribed to the infants are not supplied by the contractor. The government laid out diet chart clearly mentions the menu of the patients classifying them into `normal (full diet)' , `boiled/soft rice', `diabetic', `vegetarian', `ureamic', `full fluid', `maternity', `diarrhoea', `child' etc., the patients at this busy district hospital hardly intake the foods provided by the authority due to its condition. 

Not only the relatives of the patients fear about the food quality, their faith on the hospital cooked foods justifiably vanish when news of lizards & even snakes cooked along with the curry often break out. A hospital official complained that, inspite half of the indoor patients restrain from using the hospital supplied diet, the contractor bills for the entire capacity of the hospital & get it passed for payment without scrutiny. Earlier, a local newspaper broke the news that the half grown dead embryo of the goats are been cooked at the hospital canteen to replace the allotted mutton, as a part of the then menu.

The hospital as a part of the government policy, are currently charging the patients for the foods other than from the Below Poverty Line. Although the tender documents clearly mention that the contractor cannot use the hospital's infrastructure for cooking the foods, the current contractors are using free space, utensils & electricity in the process. 

The nexus between the contractor and some of the hospital authorities help them to retain the contract year after year. At a time when specialised dietitians are hired at the private hospitals to ensure proper nutrition to help the patients for a faster recovery, this district hospital seems to move back in time for more profit of the concerned contractor.