Several patients in the gynaecology section of SSKM Medical College and Hospital had to be shifted and many others moved to one side as rainwater flooded the department’s ground floor on Tuesday afternoon.

Senior doctors, nursing staff and health workers of the department joined hands to ensure no patient faced difficulty when water accumulated in the building, which is located opposite the Ronald Ross building in the northern end of the Bhowanipore campus.

“Besides the ground floor, there are two other floors on the top and the patients had to be shifted to these floors. Waterlogging had been a problem for the department since 2005 but after 2011, the problem was addressed,” said Subhas Chandra Biswas, the head of the department of gynaecology of the medical college and hospital.

“Thankfully the waterlogging didn’t happen during the OPD hours when there is a huge rush of patients outside,” he said.

The PWD looks after the drainage of water from the buildings on the sprawling SSKM campus.

On Tuesday afternoon, a team of engineers rushed to identify the cause of the waterlogging and began a series of activities to clear clogged drains. By late night, the water level started receding.

The hospital authorities have convened a meeting on Wednesday to discuss how to address the problem of waterlogging and whether alternative arrangements would have to be made before the monsoon. Senior engineers from the PWD and CMC will attend the meeting.

Witnesses said water started accumulating outside the building from 3.30pm. The area usually witnesses a long queue in the morning when several patients turn up to visit the outdoor of the gynaecology department.

Around 4.25pm, water started gushing into the ground floor of the department, a part of which is earmarked for OPD and the rest kept available to treat emergency patients who might need immediate surgical intervention.

Nurses and doctors of the gynaecology department waded through water on the ground floor to shift some women who were waiting for their treatment on Tuesday afternoon. Relatives joined in to help shift patients, too, as the water level kept rising.

A message was sent to senior officials of the hospital, including Manimoy Banerjee, the director of the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, informing them about the waterlogging and the patients in the gynaecology ward.