One doctor dies in accident, another fights for life

BANKURA: A 54-year-old doctor of Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospital (BSMCH) was killed in a road accident on Wednesday morning. Another doctor of the same hospital sustained major head and chest injuries. The doctors, both from Kolkata, were on their way to the hospital when the car they were travelling by collided with a dumper. The accident also left the driver of the car critically injured.



Dr Abhijit Dey (54), who died in the accident, was an RMO at the radiotherapy department and Dr Amitabha Roy (62) was the department head. Both would commute regularly from Kolkata to Bankura. On Wednesday morning, the duo left for the hospital and took a train together till Durgapur. There they hired a car and headed to Bankura.

Around 9am as the car was passing through Bakura town bypass, it collided with a dumper coming from Junbedia Panchbhanga. Police, with the help of locals, rushed the two doctors to BSMCH where Dey was declared dead.

BSMCH principal Dr Parthapratim Pradhan said, “Dr Amitabha Roy sustained major head and chest injuries and multiple fractures. His condition is critical.”

Doctors said Roy has slipped into coma.He was later shifted to SSKM Hospital for better treatment. According to colleagues, the two doctors were very efficient.

BSMCH medical superintendent and vice-principal Dr Subhendu Dey said, “Dr Amitabha Roy is the head of the radiotherapy unit while Dr Abhijit Dey was the RMO. Both were working efficiently to treat cancer patients.”

Both the doctors were in the backseat of the car when the accident occurred. The driver of the car also sustained major injuries and is being treated at BSMCH. The car was mangled.

Dey was a resident of 227 IA block in Salt Lake. His wife Shoma rushed to Bankura along with relatives after getting the news. His son, a law student in a Delhi institute, is away. The news was kept away from Dey’s mother, Chhaya (72), a cardiac patient. Roy is a resident of Regent Park.

Colleagues said that they would travel daily from the city as the hospital campus did not have enough accommodation for doctors coming from Kolkata or other cities.

“Most doctors from Kolkata have to travel over 200km daily to Bankura for work. At times there is a work load, we have to put up in lodges around the hospital. It is high time the government arrangements for doctors’ accommodation,” a colleague said.