How 138-year-old RG Kar hospital sank into a ‘ditch’ of corruption, politics

No one knows for sure since when the 138-year-old RG Kar Medical College and Hospital (RGKMCH), now at the centre of a nationwide outrage, got its pejorative nickname — khaalpaar (by the ditch).

Essentially, it is located near a ditch (khaal), in Kolkata’s Belgachia, and hence the sobriquet “khaalpaar”.

However, almost everyone associated with the government-run institution is prompt to admit that the term has somewhat become metaphorical in the recent past.

Systematic degeneration

To quote a few of them, the RGKMCH allegedly degenerated into a veritable ditch during the tenure of its immediate former principal Dr Sandip Ghosh because of the prevalence of large-scale corruption, intimidation, and strong-arm tactics.

The brutal rape and murder of the young doctor at the hospital on August 9 was a culmination of that systematic degeneration, alleged an alumnus of the institution, which was established as a private venture to counter medical discrimination of natives by colonial British rulers.

“The ousted principal was running the college and hospital as his fiefdom with the help of his aides drawn from among students affiliated with the ruling Trinamool Congress, as well as doctors. Those who were in his good books virtually enjoyed amnesty against all kinds of transgressions. Alternatively, he would make life miserable for those who refused to kowtow,” said Dr Sam Musafir, a protesting doctor and a former student of the RGKMCH.

“North Bengal lobby”

Dr Ghosh took over as the principal of the RGKMCH amid the COVID pandemic in 2021. His appointment brought to the fore growing influence in the party’s power structure of a particular lobby of doctors within the Trinamool Congress, referred to as the “North Bengal lobby” in the medical circle.

This lobby is ostensibly controlled by a troika comprising a doctor-cum-MLA of the party, a private physician close to the chief minister, and a Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad leader, who is also a postgraduate trainee, several doctors and students told The Federal. Most of them are scared to come on record.

Dr Ghosh’s brief from the first day of his tenure was apparently to establish the full control of the so-called North Bengal lobby at the RGKMCH, elbowing out the party’s two other power lobbies that wield influence in the affairs of medical education in West Bengal and the government-run health care system.

Modus operandi

The modus operandi at the outset was to create a loyal group of aides within the institution. “To earn loyalty, members of the alleged cartel were given a free run to control the allotment of hostel seats, hospital beds, duty rosters, and even the selection of house staff-ship doctors,” Dr Musafir told The Federal.

Endorsing Dr Musafir’s view, many junior doctors alleged that the recent guidelines issued by the directorate of medical education for the recruitment of house staff locally further helped the manipulators.

According to the guidelines, the selection of house staff should be on the basis of “final merit score” to be calculated on the basis of academic score plus interview score. The interview panel includes the principal, medical superintendent-cum-vice-principal (MSVP), account officer, and a house staff selection committee formed by the principal, among others.

It gave the interview panel a window to manipulate the selection, many interns alleged. They claimed that only those who agreed to cough up the first two months’ salary made it to the coveted list. RG Kar hospital at present has 84 house staff selected from among 151 candidates.

The “powerful group” is also accused of extorting money from canteens and allowing illegal food stalls to set up within the RGKMCH. There are eight canteens and a few illegal stalls within the premises.

Tip of the iceberg

The above irregularities were just the tip of the iceberg, claimed Dr Anubhav Mandal, an intern at the hospital.

The principal was in the past accused of multiple irregularities and corruption. Complaints were lodged against him in the past with the West Bengal State Vigilance Commission and the National Medical Commission. But nothing came of those, allegedly because some invisible powerful hands were shielding him.

In the past, Dr Ghosh was thrice transferred from the RGKMCH, only to be reinstated, in one case within 24 hours. Such was his influence in the state’s power corridor.

This time, within hours of his resignation in the wake of the current protest over the rape and murder of the young doctor, he was reinstalled as the principal of the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital in what was perceived as a promotion.

The decision earned flak from the Calcutta High Court, which forced Dr Ghosh to go on long leave. The Central Bureau of Investigation is now grilling him over the rape and murder.

List of corruption charges

Some of the major charges raised against the RGKMCH authority during Dr Ghosh’s tenure include corruption in bio-waste management, procurement of medicines and equipment, misuse of bodies sent for autopsy for “dissection classes” without the consent of family members of the deceased, and vindictiveness against nonconforming doctors and students.

“The RGKMCH last year claimed to have generated biowaste of only 48 kg. For context, the city’s another premier medical institution, the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital, generated 1.5 lakh kg of biowaste during the same period,” Dr Musafir pointed out.

Former deputy superintendent of the hospital, Dr Akhtar Ali, who had lodged a written complaint flagging the abovementioned irregularities and scams last year, was shunted out of the hospital.

FIRs were lodged in the past against several students, who raised voices against the system. Not allowing students to pass their examination or withholding registration of interns were other high-handed methods.

Dr Mandal, against whom an FIR was lodged a couple of years ago and allegedly made to fail in the semester exam last year, moved the Scheduled Caste Commission against the authority.

“The harassment was reduced only after I moved the SC Commission,” Dr Mandal told The Federal.

Rivals within TMC

Protesting doctors and students are not the only ones accusing the RGKMCH authority of gross mismanagement. Even many TMC leaders privately and publicly alluded to the mismanagement.

TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Dr Santanu Sen was among those party leaders who raised accusing fingers at Dr Ghosh and RGKMCH authorities over irregularities. Incidentally, Sen himself heads a doctors’ lobby within the TMC. His lobby has been marginalised by the so-called North Bengal lobby, according to party insiders.

Whiff of a conspiracy

Given the influence Dr Ghosh and his coterie exercised within the institution, the agitating groups feel that there could be a larger conspiracy behind the gruesome rape and murder.

Parents of the victim told the media that she was very reluctant about going to her workplace.

This has added to the suspicion that she might have become a victim of revenge killing for coming in the way of some illegal activities in the institution.

The massive anger that erupted among the medical fraternity over the brutal incident is because of this perception that the state government was trying to hush up the larger conspiracy in a bid to shield some close to power.

The Left’s record

This is, however, not the first time a state government finds itself in the dock for the alleged sloppy investigation by the police into the sad demise of a student of the RGKMCH.

After the death of a fourth-year medical student, Soumitra Biswas, in 2001, the then CPI(M)-led Left Front government was accused of shielding an influential coterie that allegedly ran a pornography and prostitution racket within the institution. The police had initially tried to pass off the death as suicide, only to make a U-turn after complaints of foul play emerged from agitating students and parents of the victim.

A tarnished legacy

All in all, this is a sad saga of an institution that traces its legacy to the nationalist movement brewing in the 19th century.

“Multiple factors, like the developing nationalist movement, discriminating behaviour of the British government, the great urge to serve the ailing poor Indians and, most importantly, the desire to spread medical education among talented young people gave birth to the dream of developing a non-government medical educational institute. Dr Radha Gobinda Kar gave the required push to this dream to make it a reality,” reads a note on the history of the institution on a website run by former students of RG Kar.

It was Asia’s first private medical college established in 1886. It was first christened the Calcutta School of Medicine, renamed as the Belgachia Medical College in 1916, and again as the Carmichael Medical College in 1918. It got its present name in 1948 to honour its founding father.

The West Bengal government took control of the historic institution in 1958.