A year after RG Kar rape & murder, what a visit to 2 hospitals tells us
Telegraph | 8 August 2025
A year after the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital sparked statewide protests by junior doctors and the public, several demands of the protesting doctors remain unfulfilled.
The central referral system for patients is not functioning, and the real-time bed vacancy display boards have stopped updating information.
Junior doctors across all medical colleges in Bengal had held a 42-day cease-work after the August 9, 2024, atrocity. They later went on hunger strike for 17 days.
Some of their demands have been met: such as increased security, the formation of internal complaints committees, transparent examinations, and more on-duty rooms and washrooms for doctors.
The government on Thursday advertised for the recruitment of doctors, faculty members and nurses. The junior doctors had demanded that the huge vacancies at state-run hospitals be filled.
The Telegraph visited RG Kar and Medical College Kolkata on Thursday to find out what had changed and what had not.
Patient referral system
One of the junior doctors’ main demands was a system to ensure that a government hospital refers a patient to another only if the destination hospital has a vacant bed and the facilities to treat the patient. But the system is non-functional, the medicos say.
Patients are still being referred, from even the medical colleges, without any bed being reserved for them at the destination hospital.
Pancha Balmiki, 55, an Amherst Street resident, came to the Medical College Hospital on Monday morning with weakness in the left side, breathing troubles and a sudden increase in blood pressure. Doctors at the emergency asked the family to admit him to any hospital that had a vacant bed.
“The doctors said there was no vacant bed at Medical College Kolkata now. They asked us to try at NRS (Medical College and Hospital),” a family member said.
The family was not given any reference number that would help the patient secure admission.
When the patient referral system was launched last year, health department officials had said the doctor referring the patient would give the family a reference number to be quoted at the destination hospital. The system would generate the reference number only after the receiving hospital confirmed that it had a vacant bed.
A health department official said it was the doctors’ responsibility to ensure that patients received the reference number.
“The system has been put in place. It is the responsibility of doctors and other healthcare workers to execute it,” the official said.
Aniket Mahata, one of the faces of the protest and a founder member of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF), however, said: “The patient referral portal is not functioning. This is why we lack the option to send the patient’s details to other hospitals or get the feedback from them.”
Bed vacancy display
The real-time bed vacancy boards had not been updated at either medical collegethis newspaper visited on Thursday.
At RG Kar, the display board showed only a search bar, a junior doctor said. At Medical College, thedisplay board showed that it had been last updated onJuly 23.
“The bed vacancy information displayed at the board at our hospital was last updated on February 24,” a junior doctor from the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital alleged.
The health department official said the doctors were responsible for providing updated information. “The infrastructure has been created, now the doctors have to run it,” he said.
CCTVs
More than 6,000 new CCTV cameras have been installed at government medical colleges across the state over the past one year, at an expense of ₹65 crore, a senior health department official said.
An official at Medical College said a new server room had been set up at thehospital to monitor CCTV footage. More than 500 CCTVs have been installed atRG Kar and they too are being monitored from a dedicated room.
One of the protesting junior doctors’ demands was the safety of doctors and all healthcare workers.
“We have seen several CCTVs being installed and hope they are being monitored by the police,” said a junior doctor, also a member of the WBJDF, which had led last year’s protests.
Security
The Central Industrial Security Force and city police were jointly guarding the gates at RG Kar on Thursday. They were asking the drivers of cars where they wanted to go.
Illumination has been increased inside the hospital premises. The hospital perimeter is protected by barbed wire.
At Medical College, the number of contractual security personnel has nearly been doubled. They make rounds of the hospital at night and speak to doctors at the three emergencies: general, paediatric and gynaecological.
Transparent exams
Junior doctors were happy that the conduct of exams had become more transparent.
“Indiscriminate cheating and copying from books had become common at exams. This has changed after our protests. When the third-year PGT exams were held last year, such malpractices were not allowed,” a doctor said.
Student elections
The medicos are unhappy that students’ elections have not been held yet.
“The state government had promised that students’ elections would be held soon. A year has passed but nothing has been done,” Mahata alleged.