A third year pediatric resident doctor at JJ Hospital Mumbai attempted to end her life and was rushed to hospital on July 16, according to a letter from her batchmates.

The doctor was being threatened with not being allowed to appear for her MD examinations by her teacher, who had constantly been harassing and discriminating her, her friends and batchmates wrote in the letter. “The resident was facing exceptional harrasment and discrimination from the head of department, who is her PG guide and local guardian. Due to trivial reasons, she was targetted and belittled on numerous occasions , especially in front of patient relatives from the start of her residency. This torture soon became unbearable for her. She tried to seek professional psychiatric help. On numerous occasions she felt anxious and helpless and felt that there was no way out,” the letter read.

The batchmates mentioned that the department of pediatrics was going on an indefinite strike against the HoD Dr. Bela Verma, until she is permanently transferred.

The doctor’s attempts to reach out the Head of the Department failed as her requests for help went unnoticed. The batchmates of the student alleged that there was “rampant favouritism,” “unfair treatment,” “systemic abuse,” from the HoD.

“We have suffered in silence because we were too afraid of retaliation by the HOD in power. Not only this, the concept of favouritism runs rampantly leaded by the HOD in the department. She refuses to rotate postings, only takes those residents who she seems as “good residents” , while the rest are banished to peripheral posting for months on end. There are arbitrary, illogical decisions like unexplained pay cut, not considering any family emergencies or not even paying any heed to resident’s physical/mental/emotional well being. HOD has lack of trust towards the residents, even senior faculty, and blame shifting on residents is a common scenario. Toxicity is to such an extent that passout candidates refuse to join back as Senior residents or even Assistant professors,” her batchmates mentioned in the letter.

in a letter to Minister of Medical Education of Maharashtra, Hasan Mushrif Saheb, the Maharashtra Senior Resident Doctor Association (MSRDA) “unequivocally condemned” the “continued departmental toxicity and harassment faced by the resident doctors in the Department of Pediatrics, Grant Government Medical College and Sir JJ Hospital, Mumbai.”

Moreover, MSRDA went a step further from the doctors in the department and demanded the suspension of the HoD, launch a time bound investigation, offer psychological support and sought assurance of intolerance to such toxic environments from the Government of Maharashtra.

(Those in distress or having suicidal tendencies could seek help and counselling by calling any of the following numbers:I Call – 022-25521111 (Monday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.); ASRA – 022 2754 6669 (24×7); The Samaritans Mumbai: 8422984528/842984529/8422984530 ( 5 p.m. -8 p.m., all days))