The meeting of the hospital governing body in progress on Friday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, Aug. 19: Regular meetings will be held between doctors and relatives of patients to prevent violence arising out of communication gap, the governing body of the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital today said.

As a starting, a help desk would be set up to inform visitors about the rules and procedures at the NBMCH. Helplines, too, will be introduced so that enquiries about patient health and facilities can be made over the phone.

The development comes after a minor altercation between doctors and relatives of a patient snowballed into a major clash on Tuesday. Eight people were injured and five police vehicles were damaged in the violence.

“There exists a lack of communication between relatives of patients and doctors all the time because of which altercations and clashes take place. In most cases, the relatives are either ignorant or confused about the rules of the hospital. They are also anxious to know about the condition of their patient. It is important to keep them informed. Hence, we have decided to start a system of regular interaction between the two sides,” said north Bengal development minister Gautam Deb, who is also the chairperson of the 22-member governing body of the NBMCH

A help desk would be started and helplines, too, to make enquires easier,” said Deb.

The governing felt that Tuesday’s incident was a result of a lack of communication with the family members of Dipika Debnath, who had been admitted to the labour room. Junior doctors complained that Dipika’s relatives attacked them when they were not allowed to visit her.

The police initiated a suo motu case against 13 MBBS students and junior doctors for destroying government property.

The issue of increased workload of junior doctors was also discussed.

“Most of the time senior doctors are on leave and at home in Calcutta. Under the circumstances, the entire workload falls on the junior doctors — right from the time the patients are admitted here to recommending health investigations and treatments. With less doctors and huge number of patients, there may be delay in attending to patients. This in turn leads to altercations and clashes. Moreover, there are many posts of doctors vacant here. We will ensure that these are filled up immediately,” said Rudranath Bhattacharya, Siliguri MLA and a member of the governing body.

Bhattacharya, the chairperson of the state standing committee on health, is also a former doctor of the NBMCH. At present, there are 190 junior doctors and around 250 senior doctors at the sole-referral hospital of the region.

The governing body also said strict measures like not granting unauthorised leave, maintaining a roster, registering attendance and submission of work charts would be implemented for both senior and junior doctors and other hospital staff.

The minister said requisition of more personnel would be made with the Sainik Board (association of ex-servicemen) so that there is adequate security on campus.

At present there are 80 security personnel against a requirement of 150.

The minister also said the medical college would need Rs 11 crore to set up cardio-thoracic surgery, neurosurgery and paediatric surgery units. “The Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority and North Bengal Development Council will bear 50 per cent of the cost. A request would be made to the state government to give us the remaining amount,” Deb said.