Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday suspended a dozen doctors of a state government-run hospital and ordered a police investigation against them for medical negligence after contaminated saline left a pregnant woman and a newborn dead.
Her action came hours after her government was pulled up by the Calcutta High Court for not taking strong steps against the usage of contaminated saline at the state-run hospitals. Ms Banerjee, who announced the names of the 12 suspended doctors of Midnapore Medical College and Hospital (MMCH), also accused one of them of practicing at a private hospital during duty hour.
The suspended doctors are medical superintendent-cum-vice principal (MSVP) Jayanta Kumar Rout, resident medical officer Somen Das, assistant professors Dilip Kumar Pal and Himadri Nayak, head of department (gynaecology and obstetrics) Mohammad Alauddin, senior resident Pallabi Banerjee and first-year and third-year postgraduate trainees: Moumita Mandal, Bhagyasree Kundu, Sushanta Mandal, Pooja Saha, Manish Kumar and Jagriti Ghosh.
The CM said, “These 12 have been suspended along with pending investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department. The incident happened due to the medical negligence of those who were present on that day. Juniors are not qualified to perform caesarean section operations. But they were deputed for this. Also, anaesthesia was not done properly. Where were the MSVP and head of the department? Wasn't it their responsibility to find out what happened?”
Earlier, an HC division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya came down heavily on the state health department, headed by Ms Banerjee, while hearing petitions seeking an impartial probe into the contaminated IV fluid scam which has come to light recently with the two deaths at MMCH.
The bench observed, “It is rather disturbing to know that despite an order passed in December 2024 directing to stop manufacturing, the health department did not take proactive action to suspend the usage of the drugs. This was only done on 14th January. We fail to understand why it took more than 10 days to pass orders for withdrawal of existing stock.” It also directed the state government to compensate the family of the deceased.
