KOLKATA: Hushed talk of medical college principals in Bengal being bullied and threatened if they don’t toe the line of an influential lobby in the health department came out in the open at a meeting to seek inputs on improving healthcare and addressing the safety concerns of doctors and students, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said Wednesday amid continued unrest and administrative changes triggered by the Aug 9 rape-murder at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College.
A woman principal recounted during Monday’s meeting convened by IMA’s Bengal chapter that a junior doctor officiating as a member of the penal and ethical committee of the West Bengal Medical Council “called me names” for not doing the bidding of the “north Bengal lobby”, purportedly named after their alma mater North Bengal Medical College and Hospital.
“My family wasn’t spared either. The junior doctor said ‘they’ would ‘see’ how my children stepped out of home,” a source in IMA quoted the principal as saying.
IMA West Bengal’s action committee issued a release on what transpired at the meeting. “We have zero expectation of justice when even a medical college principal does not feel safe at her workplace,” it said.
“What has shocked us even more is non-action from Swasthya Bhawan (the state health department headquarters) despite being informed by the principal (about what she faced). It is evident that the health department is run by power-hungry, blindfolded officials whose only worry is their next posting.”
Some of the principals alleged that question papers were given to select students before exams and that many of them illegally used mobile phones and laptops to access ChatGPT. The principal of a suburban medical college recommended that exams held this year be reviewed given the fact that at least 40% of the answer sheets were identical.
“The principal of a medical college in north Bengal reported that a faculty member distributed question papers to students before the start of the exam. A teacher from another north Bengal teaching hospital was removed as invigilator in the middle of an exam,” IMA said.
The association named two young doctors who were allegedly part of the lobby and mentioned at least one instance of an allegedly politically-motivated transfer of a teacher from north Bengal to Kolkata.
“Such mass oppression can only happen when a large part of the system is corrupt and operates like an efficient cartel,” IMA said.
All 15 principals who attended the meeting expressed anguish over the rape-murder of a young doctor studying for her postgraduation at RG Kar, whose former principal Dr Sandip Ghosh is currently being interrogated by CBI.
The principals felt Ghosh’s handling of the aftermath of the crime tarnished the medical fraternity’s image, IMA officials said.
A woman principal recounted during Monday’s meeting convened by IMA’s Bengal chapter that a junior doctor officiating as a member of the penal and ethical committee of the West Bengal Medical Council “called me names” for not doing the bidding of the “north Bengal lobby”, purportedly named after their alma mater North Bengal Medical College and Hospital.
“My family wasn’t spared either. The junior doctor said ‘they’ would ‘see’ how my children stepped out of home,” a source in IMA quoted the principal as saying.
IMA West Bengal’s action committee issued a release on what transpired at the meeting. “We have zero expectation of justice when even a medical college principal does not feel safe at her workplace,” it said.
“What has shocked us even more is non-action from Swasthya Bhawan (the state health department headquarters) despite being informed by the principal (about what she faced). It is evident that the health department is run by power-hungry, blindfolded officials whose only worry is their next posting.”
Some of the principals alleged that question papers were given to select students before exams and that many of them illegally used mobile phones and laptops to access ChatGPT. The principal of a suburban medical college recommended that exams held this year be reviewed given the fact that at least 40% of the answer sheets were identical.
“The principal of a medical college in north Bengal reported that a faculty member distributed question papers to students before the start of the exam. A teacher from another north Bengal teaching hospital was removed as invigilator in the middle of an exam,” IMA said.
The association named two young doctors who were allegedly part of the lobby and mentioned at least one instance of an allegedly politically-motivated transfer of a teacher from north Bengal to Kolkata.
“Such mass oppression can only happen when a large part of the system is corrupt and operates like an efficient cartel,” IMA said.
All 15 principals who attended the meeting expressed anguish over the rape-murder of a young doctor studying for her postgraduation at RG Kar, whose former principal Dr Sandip Ghosh is currently being interrogated by CBI.
The principals felt Ghosh’s handling of the aftermath of the crime tarnished the medical fraternity’s image, IMA officials said.