The doctor's safety in West Bengal continues to be a big question. Five years back, the state government had promised to give a better and safer place to female doctors, but the condition has not improved much.
According to the memo seen by the Reuters news agency, the West Bengal government had promised public hospitals better security equipment, female guards to support female physicians, and controlled entry points.
Four trainee doctors said that none of the promises have been fulfilled at the public hospital where a postgraduate woman doctor was raped and murdered on August 9.
The West Bengal government had committed to implementing robust security measures in hospitals following an assault on two doctors by a patient's family members in 2019, as per a state health department memo dated June 17, 2019, which Reuters reported for the first time. The memo, a two-page document, was created as a "record note" after chief minister Mamata Banerjee's meeting with protesting trainee doctors on the same day. However, the document did not specify the intended recipients.
In the wake of the recent trainee doctor 's rape-death, the colleagues disclosed the scary experiences at the hospital. They revealed that one of the doors of the lecture hall where the doctor had been resting during a 36-hour shift when she was attacked had no lock. The air conditioning in the designated break room had malfunctioned, they added.
"If those measures had been taken, this incident may never have happened," said Dr Riya Bera, a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar, of her colleague's death.
Asked by Reuters about the 2019 assurances, West Bengal health secretary NS Nigam said the Covid-19 pandemic had disrupted improvements for two years but "a lot" had been done since 2021, including strengthening CCTV coverage and engaging private security in hospitals.
Dr Shreya Shaw, a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Hospital , said she found two strangers shaking her awake at around 3 am when she was sleeping in a designated restroom, which did not have locks.
"It was initially quite scary to wake up to unknown men in the dark," she said, adding that she was shocked the patients could enter the floor where she was resting without being stopped.
According to the memo seen by the Reuters news agency, the West Bengal government had promised public hospitals better security equipment, female guards to support female physicians, and controlled entry points.
Four trainee doctors said that none of the promises have been fulfilled at the public hospital where a postgraduate woman doctor was raped and murdered on August 9.
The West Bengal government had committed to implementing robust security measures in hospitals following an assault on two doctors by a patient's family members in 2019, as per a state health department memo dated June 17, 2019, which Reuters reported for the first time. The memo, a two-page document, was created as a "record note" after chief minister Mamata Banerjee's meeting with protesting trainee doctors on the same day. However, the document did not specify the intended recipients.
In the wake of the recent trainee doctor 's rape-death, the colleagues disclosed the scary experiences at the hospital. They revealed that one of the doors of the lecture hall where the doctor had been resting during a 36-hour shift when she was attacked had no lock. The air conditioning in the designated break room had malfunctioned, they added.
"If those measures had been taken, this incident may never have happened," said Dr Riya Bera, a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar, of her colleague's death.
Asked by Reuters about the 2019 assurances, West Bengal health secretary NS Nigam said the Covid-19 pandemic had disrupted improvements for two years but "a lot" had been done since 2021, including strengthening CCTV coverage and engaging private security in hospitals.
Dr Shreya Shaw, a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Hospital , said she found two strangers shaking her awake at around 3 am when she was sleeping in a designated restroom, which did not have locks.
"It was initially quite scary to wake up to unknown men in the dark," she said, adding that she was shocked the patients could enter the floor where she was resting without being stopped.
