Chennai: Panel to Probe Harassment Complaint against Medical professor

The letter alleged that a senior professor in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the hospital had asked her postgraduate students to present sexual favours to a male junior faculty member in the department of anaesthetics.

Chennai: With the Health Department receiving a number of complaints of sexual harassment against doctors at its medical facilities, a three-member committee has been formed in order to investigate one such issue at Kasturba General Hospital at Triplicane.

The investigation comes after the Health Directorate received two anonymous letters in relation to harassment in the Kasturba General Hospital in February this year.

The letter alleged that a senior professor in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the hospital had asked her postgraduate students to present sexual favours to a male junior faculty member in the department of anaesthetics, reports TOI

The letter immediately prompted action on the instructions of Health secretary J Radhakrishnan. However, responding to the anonymous letters, Director, Medical Education, A Edwin Joe mentioned that they conducted two independent inquiries during which no one came upfront to file the complaint against the alleged oppressor.

“Both inquiries were discrete and were done face to face with every student. The inquiry officers spoke to all women and concluded that the complaints were baseless,” he informed Times Of India.

Speaking on the matter, a health department official confirmed to the New Indian Express that in the last two weeks the directorate received the same complaint twice and they had already conducted enquiries with all students. None of the students came forward to file a complaint. “We suspected the role of outsiders who might have differences with the accused professors,” said the official.

“We have decided to make another round of inquiry just to ensure we haven’t missed anything in the first two,” Joe clarified.

The committee will be headed by Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital dean Dr R Jayanthi.

A few departments of the Government Kasturba Gandhi General Hospital function under Madras Medical College and the rest under Multi- Super Speciality Hospital, Omandurar Estate.