At a time when chief minister Mamata Banerjee is repeatedly urging the doctors and nurses to serve the patients with a human face, a patient died at the SSKM Hospital in Kolkata on Friday after his penis was allegedly nibbled by rats.

Arun Sandhukha, 53, from Sreerampore in Hooghly, was admitted at the new emergency ward of the hospital since December 11 with pneumonia. In the morning, when his family came to visit him, he was lying on the bed in a pool of blood. “No nurse was found at the scene and he was writhing in pain. His penis had been nibbled by rats,” on his relatives Bishwanath alleged. At around 4.15 pm, Sadhukha died of his injuries. The hospital authorities have admitted the presence of rats at the ward, Bishwanath claimed.
Earlier in the day, in another case, a government doctor was found treating patients in an inebriated state at the Bolpur sub-divisional hospital in Birbhum. Kalipada Das was found in a druken state in the emergency department by a patients’ family. Facing protests, Dr Das admitted: “I drank on Thursday night due to domestic problem.”