CM Mamata Banerjee takes everyone by surprise, plays doctor

Junks rising crib deaths, advises allergy test, talks of 'sabotage' by use of banned drugs.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took everyone by surprise on Tuesday when she advised doctors to first conduct asthma and allergy tests on patients complaining about chest pain.

"I am advising the doctors to first conduct test for asthma and allergy whenever patients come to hospital with chest pain," she said without explaining what prompted her to issue such advice. She was speaking at an event to inaugurate a fair price medicine shop at Kolkata's SSKM Hospital.

She also rejected reports of rising crib deaths in Bengal hospitals saying "the child mortality rate in West Bengal has decreased from 23 to 19 per cent in last one-and-a-half year (of her rule)".

Blaming the spurt in crib deaths in Bengal on the influx of patients from Bihar and other neighbouring states, she said: "There has been an influx in the number of babies from Bihar in recent times and so everybody is saying that crib death has increased."

She even claimed that that there have been instances of "sabotage" in some hospitals where some medical staff are administering banned drugs and thereby killing patients.

She urged health officials to upload the names of the banned drugs on the website of the state health department. "Hospitals are not the place for doing politics," she added.

Cong, CPM tell Didi to get well soon

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's clarification on Tuesday that she did not say that she would beat Prime Minister Manmohan Singh failed to impress the opposition. The Congress termed it as a "regular habit" of the CM to deny her own statements, while the CPM took a jibe that she needs rest as the exhaustion of addressing public meetings for hours and hours has affected her health.

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