Calcutta Medical College launches helpline for safety of doctors

In the wake of various incidents of atrocities on junior and women doctors, the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital authorities have decided to introduce help line numbers to ensure their 

security inside the hospital campus.

The decision was taken after several junior doctors had written to the hospital authorities urging them to take some steps to prevent the assault on doctors by relatives of patients.

According to the hospital sources, the help line number will remain operational round the clock so that the doctors can register a complaint whenever in distress. It has been learnt that the help line number would be introduced in the hospital before Pujas.

If a junior doctor or a woman doctor is subjected to any kind of assault and harassment by the relatives of patients, they can call the help line number which in turn will deliver a distress alert to the police outpost situated inside the hospital or the police headquarter in Lalbazar.

In most of the cases, the doctors – when in distress – are unable to lodge a complaint with the police immediately after the incident. As a result, the situation often escalates.

According to a senior official at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, the doctors can call the help line number if there is a possibility of agitation inside the hospital campus.

If a doctor triggers a distress alarm before there is an escalation of agitation, police and security personnel can easily take control of the situation. This will help the hospital authorities to check incidents of violence.

Recently, two junior women doctors were heckled by some miscreants, who also stabbed two staff members of the hospital. After the incident, the junior doctors had appealed to the hospital authorities to take steps to curb such incidents. They had written to the hospital super Sikha Banerjee, following which the initiative was taken.

A senior official of the hospital’s Rogi Kalyan Samiti said that there was a plan to start an emergency number to save the doctors and nurses from physical assault and harassment by the patients’ relatives.