Crucial meeting at Bengal secretariat today to address safety issues in medical establishments
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant has convened an emergency meeting at the state secretariat Nabanna on Saturday to address the critical issue of safety and security in all medical establishments in the state.
The meeting has been convened amid the recent incidents like the molestation of a minor girl within the premises of state-run S.S.K.M. Medical College and Hospital in south Kolkata, the assaults on a woman junior doctor within another state-run hospital at Uluberia in Kolkata-adjacent Howrah district, and a nursing staff member within a primary health centre at Mohammad Bazar in Birbhum district.
All these incidents occurred within the last seven days. Following these events, the state administration had come under scathing criticism from all corners.
The critics claimed that the state government had “not learnt any lesson” from the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises last year.
The meeting later in the day will be attended by all top officials attached to the state Health Department, principals and medical superintendents of all medical colleges, district magistrates, district police superintendents, commissioners of Kolkata Police, and Chief Medical Officers (Health).
“The main agenda of the meeting today is to review the existing security arrangements that are in place at the state-run medical establishments, identify the lapses, and suggest correct measures. At the same time, there is a possibility on how to involve the private medical establishments in ensuring a standard operating security procedure there as well,” said a senior state Health Department official.
Recently, Association of Health Service Doctors, a leading doctors’ body in West Bengal has issued an appeal to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also in charge of the state Health and Family Welfare Department as a minister, to initiate in creation of a dedicated “hospital security force” in the state in line with that of the Railway Protection Force (RPF), whose jurisdiction will cover both the state-run and private medical establishments in the state.