RG Kar lens on lift malfunction, absence of liftman as doctors flag maintenance lapses

Kolkata: The killer lift in the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital did not have an operator on Friday morning when Arup Banerjee was trapped inside with his wife Sonali and son Ayush. Though what exactly went wrong in the lift's operation is not yet clear, sources said the presence of a lift operator could have averted the accident.The seven-story trauma care building has three lifts, one in front and two at the rear of the building. The front lift is reserved for doctors and other hospital staff. Arup Banerjee got into one of the two rear lifts that are used by patients and hospital staff.Sources in the hospital said that while the other buildings in the hospital have low footfall at night and early morning, the trauma care building, which houses the emergency ward on the ground floor, is always teeming with patients and relatives, day and night."The boy was already in pain and trauma due to the hand injury. Since he was crying for the washroom, my nephew and his wife had to use the lift to go downstairs on their own to access the pay-and-use toilet outside. A liftman would have known what to do when the lift began malfunctioning," said Arup's uncle PK Banerjee.Various doctor organisations, including the Association of Health Service Doctors (AHSD), claimed the lifts in the trauma building frequently suffered mechanical faults and blamed it on lack of maintenance and safety audit.The hospital administration said that PWD (electrical) is entrusted with maintenance of lifts and the hospital administration gets a daily report on the condition of lifts. Officials said the lift was working fine all of Thursday."There was no complaint about any technical glitches in the lift where a person died. The entire technical team is investigating what must have gone wrong in the elevator's functioning. We are not sure whether the alarm button in the elevator had been pressed or not. But we have seen from CCTV footage that the father of the victim raised an alarm that the three got stranded in the lift," said RG Kar MSVP Saptarshi Chatterjee.Chatterjee said the hospital has 32 elevators in different buildings. "We are going to ensure operators in each lift and put posters cautioning patients/relatives to avoid using elevators without operators," he added.Sources said that while each lift should have an operator, manpower shortage is an issue. "Private agencies engaged for Operation and Maintenance (O&M) operate with total impunity. There is zero supportive supervision from the health directorate to ensure these agencies fulfil their contractual obligations," AHSD wrote to the chief secretary, demanding accountability, fair probe and action.