Cleanliness and maintenance at Medical College and Hospital have taken a beating as group-D employees are organising demonstrations to protest the shabby treatment meted out to a critical burns patient, related to one of their colleagues.

The agitation began on Monday, with the employees heckling some doctors and threatening to disrupt services at a time the hospital is being run by a skeletal staff. On Tuesday, they submitted a memorandum to superintendent Anup Roy, demanding a critical burns unit.

The hospital authorities did not deny the allegation of negligence. ?What can we do? There are not many doctors and we did whatever we could. Unfortunately, we do not have a burns ward. The angry staff members assaulted us. Had it not been for police, things could have taken an ugly turn,? said a doctor.

Principal Indrajit Roy played a key role in staving off a crisis by arranging the patient?s transfer to SSKM Hospital. ?I just tried to be the facilitator. The patient was brought to our hospital, but for some reasons, her relatives thought of shifting her. I called up the SSKM authorities and the patient was transferred. This is all I can say,? Roy said.

The problem began almost as soon as the 35-year-old patient, Kavita, wife of general duty attendant (principal?s office) Baburam Shaw, was admitted to the hospital on Monday evening. She had sustained critical burns at her home in north Calcutta.

?She was screaming in pain as there was no one to attend to her. Most of the doctors are on leave. If our relatives are treated this way, imagine the sufferings of the ordinary people. We had no option but to shift the patient to another hospital, as her condition was worsening,? said Akshay Sinha, secretary of Federation Unified, an association of group D employees.

Things spun out of control as some of the employees heckled doctors in the emergency ward. Police were called in to control the situation.

The employees may have succeeded in driving home their demand, but their agitation has taken toll on critical services of the hospital, including cleaning wards and shifting patients.

Relatives have to lend a hand in shifting patients to wards. Those who could not were even seen bribing a few attendants who were on duty.

?We will continue our agitation and will boycott services within a day or two if the authorities do not pay heed to our pleas. We demand a burns unit and reservation of beds for employees,? asserted Sinha.