A 10-member inquiry committee has been formed after a deceased patient’s body was allegedly bitten by rats at Maniktala ESI Hospital in Kolkata, with the hospital sending the body for post-mortem examination and issuing showcause notices to three ward staff members.
According to a report by Bartaman Patrika, the incident occurred on Friday morning in a nephrology ward. The patient, identified as Alpana De, had been admitted to the hospital since 8 October under the care of a nephrology doctor and was undergoing treatment for stage-five kidney disease, including dialysis. She died at around 7.30 am, the report said.
The report alleged that the body remained unattended in the ward after her death. Hospital staff later found injuries to parts of the face, including the eyes and mouth, which were attributed to rat bites. The precise circumstances and extent of the injuries have not yet been established independently and are expected to be examined alongside the post-mortem findings.
The hospital falls under the state Labour Department. Labour Minister Arjun Singh disputed the description that rats had eaten away at the body, but said he had heard that the body had been bitten. He attributed the presence of rats to the hospital’s location beside a cemetery and said rodents moved through the false ceiling of the building.
The minister also described the hospital building as being in a dilapidated condition and said it required renovation. He told the report that hospital authorities had been instructed to construct a new building, which he said could help address the problem. The statement links the immediate incident to wider concerns about the condition of the hospital’s physical infrastructure, including building maintenance and pest control.
The inquiry committee has been asked to determine how the incident occurred and to compare its findings with the post-mortem report. It will also examine whether there was negligence or any other procedural lapse in the ward. The committee has been given 72 hours to submit its report.
The sister-in-charge of the ward, the matron-in-charge and the nurse assigned to night duty have received showcause notices. The action places the focus on how a death is recorded, how a body is secured before transfer, and which staff members are responsible for monitoring the ward during that period.
The incident also raises questions about the management of older public hospital buildings, where structural deterioration, access points in false ceilings and inadequate pest-control systems can affect patient care and mortuary or ward procedures. However, the inquiry and post-mortem examination will need to establish whether those factors contributed to this specific case.
The immediate next steps are the post-mortem examination and the submission of the committee’s report within 72 hours. The findings are expected to determine the sequence of events, the extent of any staff or infrastructure-related lapse, and whether further administrative action is required.
