After Kolkata horror, doctors cite loopholes in Shimla hospital

Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 16

Resident doctors at the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMC), Shimla, are seething with rage over the rape and murder of a doctor in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata.

“All culprits should be arrested at the earliest and hanged,” said Dr Sakshi Sharma while participating in a protest by the resident doctors at IGMC. “As long as our laws are not made strict, such incidents will continue to happen,” she added.

The resident doctors have not been offering their services in OPDs, wards and for elective surgeries for the last four days, and are likely to continue the strike until a satisfactory solution is worked out by their central bodies and the government.

Deeply disturbed by the incident, the doctors are also upset over the developments after the gruesome incident and subsequent investigation into it.

“The post-mortem has established that she was gang-raped, but just one person has been arrested so far. And then a mob manhandled the protesting doctors. Can’t we even seek justice for the victim? Is our system so weak in front of apparently politically influential people?” said a doctor.

The doctors added that the incident could have been prevented had there been adequate facilities and security available at the hospital. “There was no separate duty room for women doctors, so she went to the seminar room where the incident took place. Also, there was no security when the incident happened,” said the doctor.

Dr Hari Mohan Sharma, president, RDA, IGMC, said such loopholes existed even at the IGMC and these needed to be plugged to ensure that such incidents do not occur here. “We took a round of the college and hospital today with the hospital administration to find out the loopholes. There’s a need for separate duty rooms for women doctors, the CCTV cameras need to be installed at certain paces and security needs to be beefed up at sensitive places like casualty ward, etc,” said Dr Sharma.

“We need to take all precautions and preventive measures without any delay to provide safe and secure environment to healthcare officials, especially the women staff,” he added.