For six months to five years across Bengal

As many as seven doctors from three hospitals in West Bengal were suspended for a period ranging from six months to five years for medical negligence in three separate cases, said NGO People for Better Treatment here on Saturday.

“This is for the first time in the medical history of Bengal that the Medical Council of India (MCI) has cancelled a doctor’s medical license for five years for causing the death of a patient,” Malay Ganguly of the People for Better Treatment told media persons.

The NGO guided families of the victims to reach out to the MCI.

“I had admitted my wife at Uma Medical Institute [in Kolkata] for a simple gall bladder surgery. I lost her after 30 hours of the surgery. The doctors failed to give me a definite answer of the cause of my wife’s death. The doctors had a very adamant attitude regarding my wife’s treatment,” Biman Saha Roy said.

Kamal Kumar Das, who treated Mr. Saha Roy’s wife, has been suspended for five years.

The MCI has held that doctors from the city’s Uma Medical Institute, Malda Nursing Home in Malda district and Kalyani Nursing Home in Nadia district were found guilty of medical negligence and has removed their names from the Indian Medical Registrar, a release issued by the People for Better Treatment stated.

“The MCI has also written to the West Bengal Medical Council, to which these doctors are registered, to take the necessary steps to suspend the medical registrations of these negligent doctors,” the release said.

The West Bengal Medical Council was shielding the doctors and was allowing them to practice despite the MCI’s order, People for Better Treatment president Kunal Saha said over telephone.