RG Kar case opens Pandora’s box, complaints pour in from Bengal’s key medical colleges
The accusations follow an investigation into alleged irregularities against former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Sandip Ghosh, who was arrested early September.
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A rally by junior doctors for justice in the RG Kar Hospital rape-murder case, in Kolkata on Wednesday. (Express photo by Partha Paul)The rape and murder at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and its aftermath has triggered a series of complaints in some of the state’s top government medical colleges. From allegations of political nexus with the ruling establishment and a culture of “threat and intimidation” to subversion of the examination system with bribery and favouritism, students have flagged a series of irregularities in the administration, complaints accessed by The Indian Express show.
Complaints made over the last month, against at least seven of the state’s top 20 medical colleges, range from allegedly threatening to fail students who don’t toe the line, not registering students who refuse to pay bribe money to the West Bengal Medical Council, deliberately scoring students poorly during house staff selections, and even forcing some students to serve at hospital parties.
The accusations follow an investigation into alleged irregularities against former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Sandip Ghosh, who was arrested early September.
Apart from RG Kar, the colleges where allegations have been raised include North Bengal Medical College & Hospital, Midnapore Medical College and Hospital, Burdwan Medical College and Hospital (BMCH), Rampurhat Government Medical College and Hospital, College of Medicine & JNM Hospital, Kalyani, Nadia and MJN Medical College & Hospital, Cooch Behar.
Significantly, a delegation of junior doctors who met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on September 16 also highlighted these alleged malpractices.
The complaints have prompted both the state government and individual medical colleges to form their own enquiry panels. Action ordered by the institutions includes:
- At the North Bengal Medical College, five student doctors were suspended for six months and forbidden from entering the college campus or hostels on September 12, papers showed. This move came after junior doctors protested and gheraoed the college on September 2.
- A probe panel looking into similar allegations at RG Kar submitted its report on October 1. According to sources, the report found 40 of the 51 doctors, who were issued notices on September 10, guilty of “intimidation”.
- At the College of Medicine and JNM Hospital in Kalyani, as many as 40 student doctors have been suspended for six months and told that they can enter the campus only for exams.
- An enquiry committee was also set up at the MJN Medical College & Hospital and Midnapore Medical College and Hospital following similar allegations. When contacted, MJN Medical College & Hospital principal Nirmal Kumar Mondal said there were allegations against 15 people “for intimidating ordinary students in various ways”. “Action will be taken so that this incident never happens again in the medical college,” he said.
On its part, the state government claims it has taken measures to stop the “threat culture” at medical colleges. On October 1, the state government formed a five-member enquiry committee headed by Sudeshna Gupta, senior special secretary of the health department, to look into the allegations. It also set up a grievance redressal cell to address the problems of healthcare professionals in the state.
In addition, the state health department removed Tapash Ghosh as dean of students’ welfare at BMCH and transferred Nupur Ghosh of the Obstetrics Department over allegations of irregularities and intimidation. Calls and text messages to the two doctors went unanswered.
According to Minister of State for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya, the Director of Medical Education has been instructed to order strict action against doctors involved in such practices. “However, we have also said that before taking steps, the allegations should be properly investigated. Innocent should not be punished,” she said.
But doctors insist the rot runs deep. According to a junior doctor at BMCH, some doctors affiliated to the TMC’s youth wing would force students to participate in cultural and non-cultural programmes, threatening them with poor marks and supplementary exams if they refused.
Another junior doctor in the same hospital claimed that some students were similarly forced to serve drinks at parties held at the college. Both these allegations also find a mention in the complaint filed with the institution.
The Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), however, called it an attempt to malign “not only the state government but also Trinamool Congress and its student wing”. “A section of junior doctors are politically motivated and are lodging complaints against another section, some of whom may be our followers or leaders. They are doing this in several medical colleges. In each college they are lodging complaints against 40-50 medical students or doctors. All are not alike, and maybe a minuscule number have engaged in unwanted activities. But how can 50 students or doctors in one medical college be blamed? We want an enquiry committee to come up with the truth,” Trinankur Bhattacharya, stage president of TMCP, told The Indian Express.
At SSKM Medical College & Hospital, a senior doctor flagged issues with the “new points system for selection of house staff”.
“Those who were close to the TMC would get 15 out of 15 in these interviews while others got 2-3 points. To give certain candidate house staff-ships, special vacancies were created in some medical colleges in the last two-three years,” this doctor claimed.
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