Partial cease work protest at Bengal hospital against suspension of 12 doctors

Kolkata, Jan 17 (IANS) Partial cease work by junior and senior doctors started at the state-run hospital in the West Midnapore district of West Bengal on Friday to protest against the suspension of 12 doctors.

The 12 doctors were suspended after the death of a woman and a newborn in the hospital allegedly after being administered expired Ringer’s Lactate.

The woman Mamoni Ruidas died on January 10, the newborn died on Thursday morning.

While the entire state was fuming over allegations of the deaths being caused by the administration's expired Ringer’s Lactate supplied by blacklisted entity Paschim Banga Pharmaceuticals Private Limited, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday gave a virtual clean chit to the entity and announced the suspension of 12 doctors putting the entire onus of the tragedies on them.

The protesting doctors said that the partial cease work will continue till the suspension decision of the 12 doctors, six juniors and six seniors, is revoked. However, the protesting doctors have kept the emergency and outpatients department (OPD) at the hospital at West Midnapore functional.

The 12 suspended doctors include the medical superintendent-cum vice-principal and the resident medical officer of the said hospital.

On Thursday, while announcing the decision to suspend the 12 doctors and virtually giving a clean chit to Paschim Banga Pharmaceuticals Private Limited, the Chief Minister argued that the negligence of the doctors of the said hospital was more responsible for the tragedies rather than the use of Ringers' Lactate there.

“Had it been the case, then there would have been similar reports from other hospitals in the state where the same solution was used. Here the case was different. It was a sheer case of negligence. Remember, negligence is also a sort of crime,” the Chief Minister told media persons on Thursday.

The state health secretary, Narayan Swarup Nigam said that as per the standard operating protocol since there had been an incident the batches of solutions supplied by the same entity have been sent for re-examination. “All I can say is that the batches that were sent for use were properly tested repeatedly and then only sent for use. These batches will be tested again as per standard operating protocol,” the state health secretary said.