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Kolkata, October 25 (IANS) The Mamata government has made police verification mandatory even for outsourced employees in government medical establishments in West Bengal.
The decision in this regard was taken at a meeting chaired by West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to review safety measures in government medical establishments in the state.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also attended the meeting virtually and suggested mandatory police verification to check the records and credentials of outsourced employees.
He also suggested that from now on it should be mandatory to check the credentials of the agencies from where outsourced workers are hired.
The meeting was called amid recent incidents like molestation of a minor girl on the premises of the government-run SSKM Medical College and Hospital in south Kolkata, attack on a woman junior doctor at another government hospital in Uluberia in Howrah district adjoining Kolkata and attack on a woman nursing staff inside a primary health center in Mohammad Bazar in Birbhum district.
The accused in the SSKM molestation case, Amit Mallik, who is an outsourced and contractual staff member at NRS Medical College and Hospital and was earlier associated with SSKM, had a similar history of inappropriate behavior towards female patients.
A state health department official present at the meeting said, “The Chief Minister expressed his displeasure over why the state government would be brought into disrepute because a person with a past history managed to enter a government hospital. Following this, he suggested police verification for all outsourced staff already appointed or to be hired in state-run medical establishments.”
He also said that CCTV cameras installed at such medical establishments should be regularly checked and any faulty cameras should be replaced immediately.
“The Chief Minister also stressed on proper maintenance of duty roster of permanent or outsourced staff of these medical establishments,” the state health department said.
West Bengal Junior Doctors Front (WBJDF), the umbrella body of junior doctors that led the agitation over the issue of RG tax rape and murder last year, claimed that even after the RG tax tragedy, the state government had promised to take several measures to strengthen security arrangements in medical establishments.
But in reality nothing concrete was achieved, a Morcha official said.
–IANS
source/svn