Patient’s Son Thrashed With Hockey Sticks At Kolkata Hospital; Doctors Again Raise Safety Concern

Kolkata: The son of a patient undergoing treatment at SSKM Hospital was brutally thrashed and left bleeding profusely inside the hospital premises on Sunday.

According to eyewitnesses, a group of 10-15 unidentified men arrived at SSKM, the largest government hospital in West Bengal, on motorbikes around 8 am and barged into the trauma care centre. There they spotted Sourav Modak, son of a patient from Bankura, pounced on him and ruthlessly beat him up with hockey sticks and cricket stumps.

Despite the presence of police personnel, the attackers managed to leave the scene, leaving Sourav seriously injured and in a pool of blood on the ground.

Sourav is undergoing treatment at the trauma care centre.

Police & Hospital versions

With the scary attack triggering widespread condemnation, Kolkata Police are investigating the incident to identify the attackers and their motives.

“We are checking CCTV footage of the area to identify the attackers. The police have put up guard rails before the trauma care centre gate,” hospital authorities said.

A Kolkata Police officer said the attacked youth was part of a gang which clashed with a rival faction in a nearby area earlier in the day.

Coming as it does at a time when a group of doctors are on a fast unto death demanding justice for the raped and murdered RG Kar junior doctor, the SSKM incident once again brings into focus concerns about safety measures at medical colleges and hospitals.

Questioning govt’s claims

Protesting doctors again questioned how genuine are the state government’s claims of having strengthened security measures in hospitals.

“This is a clear example of the failure of the hospital’s security system. If such an incident can happen in a major hospital like SSKM, it raises serious questions about the government’s commitment to ensuring safety,” said one of the doctors at Esplanade, the hunger strike site of junior doctors.

“If outsiders can enter into a tertiary hospital like SSKM and beat up patients with no intervention of the police, it only shows how hollow is the claim of hospital security by the administration,” another doctor said.

Another view was that not just doctors, even patient parties are not safe in hospitals.

“If the government can’t ensure safety of people who visit patients, how can they protect doctors?”

Doctors are putting pressure on the Mamata Banerjee government, pressing for their 10-point charter of demands including justice for the RG Kar victim and stronger security measures in state-run medical facilities.

Last month, woman medics and nursing staff at College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital were assaulted by relatives of a patient who died.