The North Bengal Medical College and Hospital plea for guards falls on deaf ears

Siliguri, Aug. 24: The North Bengal Medical College and Hospital authorities fear that there will be more clashes between doctors and relatives of patients if the request for additional security personnel with the health department is not fulfilled immediately.

The NBMCH officials have said a proposal seeking 70 additional security personnel has been pending with the health department for the past six months even as the sole-referral hospital of the region witnessed frequent clashes.

“The frequency of clashes at the NBMCH has been increasing by the day. Apart from major incidents of violence, scuffles and altercations between doctors and patients have become everyday affairs. But even then, our requisition for 70 additional security personnel has not been fulfilled by the state health department. We had sent the proposal to Swasthya Bhavan around six months back but it has been pending there since then,” an official said today.

Anup Kumar Roy, the principal of the NBMCH who is currently in Calcutta, said he would ask the health officials at Swasthya Bhawan to upgrade the security personnel at the hospital soon. “I am in Calcutta to meet health officials at Swasthya Bhavan and will definitely request them to sanction additional guards immediately. This is necessary to strengthen the security at the hospital,” Roy told The Telegraph over phone from Calcutta today.

The hospital has at present 80 security guards, but only 26 of them are on duty at one point of time as they work in three shifts. The authorities have said the actual requirement is 150 guards and that is why they sought 70 more personnel.

The authorities’ concern stems from two clashes that happened in a span of few days. Eight persons were injured and five police vehicles were damaged when a quarrel between the relatives of a patient and junior doctors snowballed into a major clash on August 16. A few days later, public works department electricians were roughed up by the relatives of a patient outside the gynaecology ward.

According to the security personnel, extra guards needed to be posted in gynaecology, paediatric and obstetrics wards and the emergency unit where the rush of patients is more.

“These wards are most prone to clashes. However, less guards are posted there. We need six guards in the gynaecology department housing gynaecology, paediatric and obstetric wards. At present, only three are posted there. Another three guards would be required in the emergency unit, in addition to the existing three. There are several unmanned points in the hospital where guards should be posted,” said K.C. Dey, the security in charge at the NBMCH.

-TT