BHOPAL: When Rajesh Verma, a gas tragedy victim, reached Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Centre (BMHRC) on March 31last year, he and his family members were impressed by the spacious hospital building on a sprawling campus. But soon their bubble burst when doctors refused to admit the swine flu patient saying they do not have experts or medicines to cure swine flu. Verma, a contractual teacher in a primary school at Chanderi, was referred to BMHRC by a private hospital near DIG bungalow for treatment of swine flu. The doctors on duty ‘scared’ them away from the hospital. “We don’t have expert doctors nor do we have medicines to treat swine flu. Your father is in a critical condition, take him somewhere else if you can,” said a doctor, recalls his daughter Shalini, a BSc (nursing) student. Verma’s attendants then rushed him to Chirayu hospital, where he was treated for a fortnight. By this time, the family had exhausted all its resources. Through an activist, his wife then approached Supreme Court monitoring committee chairman Justice V K Agrawal seeking his intervention so that her husband could be admitted and treated at BMHRC. When the monitoring committee enquired from the BMHRC administration, the hospital said that Verma’s attendants took him away after they were told that he would be admitted in the pulmonary ward. Co-ordinator with the committee, Dr S C Agrawal, in acommuniqué to Verma’s wife, said that he could be admitted at BMHRC and her signature over BMHRC prescription indicated that they had in fact refused on their own earlier. “Why would we do it? They scared us that he couldn’t be treated in the hospital. His condition was critical and there were no doctors to take care of him”, said Shalini. Purnendu Shukla, a member of the monitoring committee said, “It’s better to find a quick solution to a patient if there is a complaint rather than going into a detailed inquiry as to what actually had happened and who was responsible for non-admission of Rajesh. He is in hospital and recovering, that’s more important.” Shalini, too, seemed satisfied with the treatment offered to her father after being admitted at BMHRC.