Kolkata: Relatives of patients admitted in the Trauma Care Centre at RG Kar Medical College & Hospital avoided using the sole lift available for patients and their kin on Saturday, wary of a repeat of Friday’s incident in which the malfunctioning of a lift led to the death of Dum Dum resident Arup Banerjee. That elevator has since been sealed.Scores of patients and their relatives were seen trudging up and down a rarely used staircase in the Trauma Care Centre even as a gutkha-stained stainless steel lift meant for patients and their kin remained idle. “I would have considered using the lift if there had been a lift operator. But even after the horrific accident, there was none,” said a patient relative.Jhuma Ghosh, the wife of a patient admitted in the building for the past 10 days, said she had never seen an operator in either of the two lifts available for the use of patients and their families. “Even on Saturday, there was no lift operator present when I went to visit my husband between noon and 1 pm. I have never seen a lift operator in the past 10 days. The only thing that is there is a stool for the operator. Patient kin, including me, have operated the lift on our own many times,” she recounted. However, on Saturday, she did not have the courage to use the lift and instead took the stairs like many others.Doctors at RG Kar said the staircase was rarely used earlier as its location was not known to most visitors. “In the Trauma Centre, there is a stair, but most patients don’t know it. It is not easily accessible to them. Hence, most of them have to access the lift, even if they have to go up or descend one floor,” said a doctor.Following the tragedy on Friday, patient relatives found out where the staircase was situated and began using it. However, most of them were concerned about what would happen if patients needed to be moved from one department to another. “For patients who cannot walk, there is no option but to take the lift. The hospital administration must ensure that the lifts are manned by operators who know what to do in case a lift malfunctions or gets stalled,” said Nishith Das, a patient relative. Hospital officials said efforts were on to post an operator in all 32 elevators across various blocks in the hospital. If such adequate manpower was not available, posters would be put up cautioning patients and their relatives to avoid using lifts without an operator. The hospital is in talks with PWD and health officials to streamline manpower.
