Patna: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna, is searching for a woman patient who has accused two male employees of the hospital of seeking sexual favours from her.

Sources in the hospital said the woman from Chhapra has levelled the charge in a letter to the AIIMS medical superintendent, Dr C.M. Singh, on Monday.

AIIMS director Dr Prabhat Kumar Singh said repeated attempts to contact the patient on Friday had proved futile. "The woman complainant is not taking our calls. Without confirming, how can we proceed with the probe? The woman has alleged that two male attendants of the gastromedicine department had sought to know her mobile number to fix a consultation with the gastrophysician," said Dr Singh.

"I don't know how much sexual advances is implied in this statement. We will look into this matter. But the complainant is not responding to our calls. We need to know who the complainant is and above all, the patient has not mentioned the names of the two male attendants. So against whom can we take any action? I have assigned a person to keep trying her number"In case any male attendant ask for unduly favour from any patient, how a doctor is supposed to know about this? There are a lot of good things happening over here. I think that should be highlighted," he said.

Sources said a sexual harassment case had been reported at the hospital in 2015. A girl had complained to the administration that a doctor had misbehaved while examining her on December 20, 2015. The hospital had referred the matter to its anti-sexual harassment committee.

The girl was undergoing treatment in the outpatient department (OPD) of obstetrics and gynaecology for excessive bleeding. She was referred to the surgery department after she complained of dyspepsia (indigestion).

In her complaint, she had complained that during physical examination, the senior faculty member had fondled her. The doctor, she said, tried to browbeat her when she raised an alarm. She had also alleged that the doctor was alone in the consultation chamber during her examination.

The code of medical ethics mandate the presence of a female attendant when a male doctor examines a woman.

An outsourced employee had also complained of sexual harassment in 2016 against the IPS officer holding a senior administrative post at the hospital during that time. However, it later turned out that the complainant was charged with financial irregularity by the IPS officer earlier and she had come out with the sexual harassment complaint after losing her job at the hospital.