The ransacked office of the hospital superintendent. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Mathabhanga, March 7: Four women died at childbirth in the subdivisional hospital here within a few hours yesterday while a lone doctor was manning the gynaecology department.

Hospital sources said Mamati Barman (23), Jyotsna Barman (23), Mamata Mondal (23) and Champa Chanda (20) had all been admitted under Dr P. Nath. Mamati and Jyotsna had normal deliveries and died of eclampsia or seizures soon after.

Mamata delivered a stillborn baby after a Caesarean and died of excessive bleeding, the sources said. Champa, on the other hand, had a normal delivery, but she too bled to death.

Her baby died after birth, the sources added.

The chief medical officer of health of Cooch Behar, S.K. Sil, has formed a four-member team to probe the deaths, which took place just two days before the world celebrates Women’s Day.

“There was only one gynaecologist in the hospital at the time. We must wait for the probe report before we can say whether they were mere coincidences or there was negligence on the part of the doctor,” said the superintendent of the hospital, Anuj Biswas.

DYFI members had gheraoed Biswas for two hours last night to protest against the deaths. This morning, Trinamul Congress supporters ransacked his office.

“We have lodged an FIR about today’s ransack,” said Biswas.

When contacted in Calcutta, the director of health services, Sanchita Bakshi, said: “I have heard about the incident in Mathabhanga and I have asked the Cooch Behar chief medical officer of health to send me the probe report as soon as possible.”

The local committee secretary of the DYFI, Madan Kar, said the subdivisional hospital had never witnessed a series of death like this one.

Trinamul leader Alizar Rehman, on the other hand, alleged that the doctors at the hospital were only interested in working for private nursing homes. “All the four women were told to get admitted to nursing homes and when they did not, the doctor neglected them,” he said.