Kolkata: A hand rickshaw-puller carries a passenger wade through a waterlogged city road after heavy rains
Treatment of patients at a few hospitals in Kolkata including the state-run SSKM Medical College and Hospital were badly affected while life-saving drugs at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine were damaged as rainwater flooded portions of the medical establishments on Monday, officials said. The Outpatient department (OPD) of gynaecology section as well as the ticket counter on the ground floor of the SSKM Medical College and Hospital building were inundated as doctors and nurses were seen attending patients with ankle-deep water accumulating on the floor.
Clerks sitting on chairs in flooded rooms were seen issuing tickets for OPD since Monday morning.
“We have been facing this waterlogging problem for the department since 2005. There was an attempt to address it in 2011, but the problem was not resolved totally,” a senior official of the medical college and hospital said on condition of anonymity.
Treatment of patients at KPC Medical College and Hospital (KPCMCH), which is a private healthcare facility, also got inundated by rainwater hampering its functioning.
"Our campus is flooded affecting our daily operations today. We tried to pump out the water but since rain continued throughout the day and the campus is situated in a low-lying area, we had to adjust with the situation," an official of the KPCMCH said.
Rainwater went inside and flooded the store of Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine on the ground floor and damaged several life-saving drugs, other medicines and oxygen cylinders kept there.
"We are helpless. This is a low-lying area and water went inside during the early morning on Monday. You cannot stop water from going inside. Several medicines stored there have been damaged. We tried to pump out the water but could not save the medicines. The entire area needs to be dried and for the time being, we are trying to shift them somewhere else in our building," an official of the medical institute said.
At the SSKM, Public Works Department employees rushed to the spot and cleared the clogged drains to clear the water.
"By night, the rainwater will be cleared and unless there is fresh downpour we do not think there will be any flooding inside the OPD of the gynaecology section at the SSKM," a PWD official said.
West Bengal experienced heavy rain since Sunday night and throughout Monday morning. The weathermen forecast more downpours in the next 24 hours.
(With inputs from PTI)
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