Bhavnagar Medical College Ragging: 6 Orthopaedics Resident Doctors Suspended
The spotlight on toxic residency cultures in Gujarat has intensified. Just a day after three resident doctors were suspended for ragging at B.J. Medical College in Ahmedabad, authorities at Sir T. Government Medical College in Bhavnagar have suspended six second-year resident doctors from the Orthopaedics department following severe complaints of harassment and intimidation by their juniors.
A Four-Month Ordeal of Collective Punishment
The sweeping disciplinary action was taken after 13 first-year postgraduate resident doctors submitted a formal joint complaint. The juniors alleged that they had been subjected to relentless mental harassment, intimidation, and abusive behavior by the six accused seniors over the course of the last four months.
According to the harrowing complaint, the seniors employed a “collective punishment” strategy. If even a single junior resident made a minor or unintentional mistake, all 13 first-year residents would be summoned – often late at night – and punished together.
Also read: BJ Medical College Ahmedabad: 3 Orthopaedic Doctors Suspended for Ragging
“Taliban-style” Punishments
The details of the alleged harassment paint a grim picture of the department’s work environment. The juniors were reportedly forced to write the same sentence hundreds or even thousands of times as a form of punishment.
Furthermore, the seniors allegedly forced the first-year medicos to stand outside operation theatres, wards, and departmental premises throughout the entire night. To ensure compliance, the juniors were required to click photographs of themselves standing at these designated locations and upload them to a specific WhatsApp group at regular intervals throughout the night as “proof” of their punishment.
Also read: BRD Medical College Ragging: 18 MBBS Students Suspended After NMC Order
Strict Administrative Action
Following the explosive complaint, the college authorities launched an immediate investigation and suspended all six accused senior resident doctors. One of these received a two-year suspension, three received one-year suspensions, and two received six-month suspensions. Under the suspension orders, they have been strictly barred from entering the college campus, hospitals, and from appearing in any upcoming examinations.
Addressing the state-wide concern, Gujarat’s Junior Health Minister, Praful Pansheriya, reiterated the government’s zero-tolerance policy towards ragging. He confirmed that a high-level inquiry committee, headed by the Dean of Bhavnagar Medical College, has been constituted to investigate the allegations in depth. The committee is expected to submit a comprehensive report to the State Government shortly, after which further punitive actions may be considered.
Also read: 1st-Year MS Surgery Resident Found Dead in Hyderabad Hostel: Family Alleges Ragging and Harassment
The back-to-back suspensions in Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar are not isolated incidents; they are symptomatic of a deeply diseased culture festering within postgraduate medical education, particularly in high-stakes surgical branches like Orthopaedics. For decades, the medical fraternity has glorified this toxic hierarchy, disguising sleep deprivation, verbal abuse, and public humiliation as “stress testing” necessary to forge good surgeons.
It is a fundamental failure of institutional leadership when first-year doctors are forced to prove their submissiveness via midnight WhatsApp selfies instead of focusing on patient care and clinical learning. Suspending these six residents is a necessary first step, but true reform requires dismantling the unspoken rule of “omerta” in medical colleges. Until department heads are held accountable for the environments they foster, we are merely treating the symptoms while the disease of ragging continues to rot the core of medical training.
