NRS makes identity cards mandatory

Kolkata: Taking lessons from the SSKM Hospital incident, the NRS Medical College and Hospital has made identity cards mandatory for all the doctors, nursing staff and health workers while on duty.

One of the main objectives of the move is to ensure that outsiders do not have access to the wards of the hospital. NRS Medical College may take steps against those who will not put identity cards around their necks during the duty hours in the hospital, sources said.

It was learnt that the hospital authorities are going to take a tough stand on the matter. It is often alleged that outsiders and touts get free access to the wards at various medical colleges in the city. Incidentally, a 15-year-old girl who had come to the OPD of the state-run SSKM Hospital for a check-up last month was lured into a hospital washroom and molested by a 34-year-old man who claimed to be a ward boy at the NRS Hospital. The incident took place in the ground-floor washroom of the Trauma Care Centre (TCC) building, which is around 200 metre from the OPD building. Police later arrested accused Amit Mullick from his home in Dhapa’s Mallikpara.

According to the police complaint, the survivor—a resident of South 24-Parganas—had come to SSKM with her parents. She was waiting for her parents, who had gone to the OPD ticket counter to fill up the doctor visitation forms, when Mullick approached her and asked her to accompany him.

The accused was in a green uniform and the girl probably thought he was a doctor or a ward boy.