West Bengal Health Minister Sharadwat Mukherjee has called an urgent meeting with medical college principals, superintendents and other senior officials after raising concerns about low attendance, unauthorised leave and cleanliness at government hospitals during the festive season.
The meeting was held at the state health department headquarters on Friday and included principals, superintendents, deputy superintendents, assistant superintendents and sanitation workers from medical colleges. Mukherjee expressed his displeasure before the meeting, questioning whether formal instructions were needed to ensure government employees performed their duties.
The move followed increased pressure on Kolkata hospitals after an accident at Chorbagan Sarbojanin during the puja period. As a precaution, medical teams comprising specialist doctors had been kept ready at major pandals across the city. During this period, the minister said, the absence of doctors and other officials at some hospitals came to his notice. He also said that some employees had taken leave without permission.
Mukherjee said the health department was an emergency service that had to operate around the clock. He said public services were funded by taxpayers and that government employees were accountable to the public. The minister added that hospitals could not take holidays in the same way as other workplaces and that services had to continue during festivals and other public holidays.
The minister also said that responsibility for confirming the attendance of doctors, healthcare workers and sanitation staff rested with the authorities of individual hospitals. He said hospital principals and deputy principals should determine who was on duty and whether any action was required. He added that the vice-chancellor of the health sciences university also had a role in overseeing the system, since medical students and doctors worked under the supervision of university and medical college authorities during their training.
The issue comes after questions were raised by some junior doctors at Kolkata Medical College over the transfer of injured people to private hospitals following the Chorbagan incident. According to the report, Chief Minister Shubhendu Adhikari sought a report on whether the doctors who made public statements had been on duty at the time. Mukherjee said the attendance of staff should be handled through the relevant institutional authorities rather than by the health minister personally.
Cleanliness at government hospitals was another concern discussed ahead of the meeting. Recently, MP Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato reportedly contacted the health minister from the premises of Deben Mahato Medical College in Purulia to complain about poor cleanliness. Show-cause notices were subsequently issued to the principal, deputy principal and five assistant superintendents, according to the report.
Mukherjee said the meeting was intended to prevent a repeat of such incidents. He stated that the department did not face a shortage of sanitation workers or equipment, but that lapses were still being reported. He said employees needed to be accountable both to the department and to themselves, and that formal guidelines could be issued if necessary.
Doctors’ organisations, however, said attendance requirements needed to be considered alongside staffing levels, workload and rest. West Bengal Doctors’ Forum president Kaushik Chakraborty said doctors had a professional responsibility but could not be compelled to work continuously for 24 hours and seven days a week. He called for adequate staffing so that emergency services could operate without exhausting individual doctors.
Doctor leaders Aniket Mahato and Manas Gumta also attributed service pressures to shortages of healthcare workers, inadequate emergency staffing, security concerns and possible gaps in equipment and essential medicines. Mahato said doctors and healthcare workers were assigned specific rosters during the puja period and argued that shortages needed to be addressed for services to improve throughout the year. The health department’s next steps following the meeting were not specified in the report.
