RG Kar Hospital patient dies after being forced to walk to toilet amid gaps in care
Telegraph | 24 March 2026
A 61-year-old man who had come to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital with symptoms of bleeding from the nose and mouth early on Monday died after doctors allegedly asked him to walk about 50 metres to a pay-and-use toilet on the premises.
Biswajit Samanta, a resident of New Barrackpore who worked as a driver, collapsed soon after reaching the toilet. His family believes he might have survived had he not been made to walk in that condition.
Biswajit’s death comes three days after 41-year-old Arup Banerjee died after being crushed between the doors of an elevator in the trauma building of the hospital on Friday.
The hospital’s original emergency ward has remained shut since August 2024 following vandalism during protests over the rape and murder of the junior doctor in a seminar room in the building. Emergency services are currently operating from the ground floor of the trauma building, where, sources said, there is no washroom for patients.
Biswajit’s son Vishal, 22, said no hospital staff advised them to arrange a stretcher or seek help from ward attendants while going to the toilet. “Doctors and nurses saw us walking out but no one stopped us,” he said.
Many doctors — not associated with Biswajit’s treatment — said patients in such a condition should not have been allowed to walk.
The emergency unit has only one functional toilet, reserved for doctors, nurses and hospital staff. Patients are not allowed to use it.
“My father was gasping for breath when we reached the hospital around 2.30am. Blood had started coming out of his nose. He had been suffering from cough and cold for about a week,” Vishal said. “Doctors examined him, administered injections and put him on oxygen support.”
Around 4.30am, Biswajit said he needed to use a washroom. “I informed the doctors. They directed us to a washroom outside the building. He was very weak, but he said he could walk. If there had been a washroom inside, we would have taken him there. He collapsed as soon as he entered,” Vishal said. He added that they had been advised to visit the cardiology OPD later in the morning.
Tala police station registered an unnatural death case.
Doctors at the hospital said families are often asked to arrange a urine pot from outside or take patients to the public toilet. With no separate enclosures for men and women in the emergency ward, many prefer using the pay-and-use facility. The situation becomes more difficult when a patient needs to defecate, a doctor said.
Atin Ghosh, MLA of Cossipore-Belgachhia and a member of the hospital’s Rogi Kalyan Samiti, visited the hospital on Monday and met officials.
“There is only one functional toilet in the emergency. The principal told me another toilet has been locked due to leakage that was damaging radiological equipment below. The public works department has apparently failed to detect the source of the leak,” Ghosh said. “It cannot be that the PWD needs so long to detect a leak.”
A junior doctor said the toilet has remained shut for over two years. “The doctors should have allowed Biswajit to use the staff toilet. This incident again points to administrative failure,” Ghosh said.
Calls to the hospital principal, Manas Bandyopadhyay, went unanswered.
Several junior doctors said the current emergency setup is inadequate for the patient load. “There is no ventilator, and the number of oxygen ports is limited. If several patients need oxygen at the same time, we struggle. There is no observation room to monitor patients,” said one doctor on emergency duty.
Doctors said a high-dependency unit with multiple beds and advanced equipment was nearly ready beside the old emergency ward before it was shut after the vandalism on August 14, 2024.
“The old emergency also had separate male and female enclosures, which we do not have now,” a doctor said.
Ghosh said he would raise the matter with the state health department. “The old emergency needs to be reopened. I will take it up with the principal secretary and, if required, with the chief minister,” he said.