The West Bengal Medical Council will meet on Monday and Tuesday for the first time since the rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9 triggered statewide protests by doctors, who also alleged misconduct by some council members.

Sources in the council said Avik De, whom a section of the protesting doctors accused of being present in the seminar room hours after the body of the 31-year-post graduate trainee doctor at RG Kar hospital was found, will attend the meeting.

De, a postgraduate trainee in general surgery at SSKM Hospital, was suspended by the state health department on September 5.

There are allegations that De was among a section of doctors who manipulated appointments in government hospitals and threatened students and faculty members who spoke against them.

However, he continues to be a member of the council.

The council’s meeting will be held with the council’s incumbent registrar, appointed without the state government’s nod, still in the post.

The state health department wrote to the president of the West Bengal Medical Council, Sudipto Roy, earlier this month to appoint a new registrar since the incumbent was appointed without the state’s approval.

The appointment of the new registrar is on the agenda, said Roy.

“This will be the first meeting after August 9. We will discuss the appointment of
a new registrar and the procedures for advertising the vacancy,” Roy, also the Trinamool Congress MLA from Serampore, told The Telegraph on Saturday.

The medical council issues registrations to all doctors completing their undergraduate studies in the state. Registration is essential to practice as a doctor. The council also hears probes and complaints against doctors.

“If a patient has a complaint of medical negligence or something else against a doctor, the complaint is lodged with the state medical council. People must understand that a fair and transparent medical council is in their interest also,” Utpal Banerjee, a
member of the Joint Platform for Doctors (JPD), an umbrella association of several associations of senior doctors, said at a news conference on Saturday.

“All young doctors, who are passing out from the medical colleges, get their registration from the council. Can we afford to have a shady medical council? It is an important institution.”

One of the demands of the junior doctors during the peak of their protests between August and October was the dissolution of the state medical council.

“We still hope that the new members will be appointed to the medical council and the new appointments will have more transparency,” said Rumelika Kumar, a postgraduate trainee doctor at the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health.