13 out of 15 doctors at hospital set up for Bhopal gas leak survivors resign over lack of infrastructure

Thirteen out of the 15 doctors at the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC), set up for survivors of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, resigned on Wednesday alleging lack of infrastructure among other things, a hospital source claimed.

They had submitted resignations to the hospital director, said one of the doctors.

"We will email resignations to the Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research tomorrow morning," said the doctor who did not wish to be named.

BMHRC Director Dr Prabha Desikan could not be contacted for comment.

Their grievance was that they were being denied promotions despite repeated pleas, the doctor said.

"Besides, many times we do not have necessary medicines or surgical appliances to treat patients or carry out operations," Prabha Desikan alleged.

"The situation has come to such a pass that we have to wait for months before conducting a surgery (as medicines or appliances are not readily available)," Prabha Desikan further claimed.

On average 4,000 patients visit the hospital daily. The BMHRC was built, on the Supreme Court's direction, to treat the survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak incident which is considered to be the world's worst industrial disaster.

At least three thousand people were killed and thousands of others suffered grievous health consequences when toxic gas leaked from the (now defunct) Union Carbide pesticide factory here on the night of December 2 and 3, 1984.