Patient Count Drops to One at RG Kar Chest Medicine Department

The respiratory medicine ward at R G Kar Medical College, which was a busy hospital ward with about 70–80 patients on any given day until three weeks ago and had doctors and nurses on duty around-the-clock, now has a deserted appearance due to the horrifying rape and murder of the 31-year-old PGT doctor. The crime was done in the ward during her call duty hours. The number of patients has decreased even though doctors and nurses (apart from the restless junior doctors) are still in place.

There were only five patients on the respiratory medicine ward on Thursday.

The respiratory department, which is located on the third level of the emergency building and next to the lecture room where the doctor's body was discovered on August 9, has about 80 beds total, including four HDU beds and five respiratory care units.

According to hospital employees, the unit had about 90% patient occupancy as of August 9. The number of patients began to decline as the junior doctors announced their cease-work for justice, leaving the senior doctors to handle patient care alone. At this time, patients with significant conditions are being admitted to the department.

“Some admitted patients also wanted to go home, especially after the mob vandalism in the wee hours of Aug 15. We started discharging those doing relatively well one by one. At present, only patients who need immediate medical care are being admitted,” said a hospital source.

Arunabha Dutta Chowdhury, the department's chief professor, was transferred eight days prior to the incident, leaving the department without a head. About five faculty members, two RMOs, a backup staff of twenty-eight PGT doctors, and other staff members and interns were in charge of it before the incident.

A second-year PGT oversaw patient care during night shifts, working in tandem with two first-year PGTs, home staff, an intern, and the nursing team. In the unlikely event that a patient became really ill, a final-year resident physician would have to rush to the unit. That fateful night, the 31-year-old PGT was leading her team.

Now, four junior doctors who were with her on duty have to regularly return to the inquiry authorities so they can be questioned. They had also completed polygraph tests.

“Every now and then probe agencies are visiting the department and hence we are restricting admission only to serious patients,” said an administrator.

According to sources, it was challenging to provide full-fledged patient care without PGTs in the other departments as well.

(Input from various sources)

(Rehash/Priyanka Pandey)