Samikhsya Bureau
Health services across the nation were hit on Friday as doctors at many places boycotted work, joining the ongoing protest against the incidents of violence against doctors in West Bengal.
The doctors stopped performing their normal duties to express solidarity with their colleagues in Kolkata who were allegedly attacked by a 200-strong mob on Monday night after a 75-year-old patient died on Monday night. The family members of the deceased alleged medical negligence.
In West Bengal, emergency wards, outdoor facilities, pathological units of many state-run medical colleges and hospitals and a number of private medical facilities remained closed for the past three days in the wake of the protest.
Many doctors at several medical colleges and hospitals in the state have resigned, worsening the crisis in the healthcare sector.
The Calcutta high court on Friday asked the state government to persuade the striking doctors to resume work and provide usual services to patients. The court also directed the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government to apprise it of the steps taken following the attack on the junior doctors at a city hospital on Monday night.
In the national capital, doctors at several government and private hospital held demonstrations in solidarity with the protesting colleagues in West Bengal.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has directed members of all its state branches to stage protests during the day. The Resident Doctors’ Association of AIIMS met Union health minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan and submitted a memorandum demanding a central law against hospital violence.
In Lucknow, doctors at the KGMU and other government hospitals joined the protest by wearing black badges and boycotted their work for some time. Later, they took out a march from IMA building. Protests were also reported from various government hospitals of the state.
In Chennai, more than 500 doctors of the Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital staged a protest demonstration to condemn the attack.
The Kerala doctors’ association held a demonstration in front of the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram.
In Hyderabad, doctors at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences held protest march.
In Mumbai, doctors at Sion Hospital said they are observing a silent protest to protest against the mob assault on Kolkata doctors.
Resident doctors at Goa Medical College (GMC), the biggest government-run medical college, in the state, staged a protest.
In the meanwhile, the current impasse between the striking medics and the Mamata Banerjee led TMC government further deepened as 175 doctors of SSKM hospital quit en-mass, taking the figure to more than 300 across West Bengal, while reports of thousands OPD patients returning home without treatment poured in through the day.
Earlier in the day, as many as 95 senior doctors of government run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital signed a joint resignation letter demanding an unconditional apology from chief minister Banerjee for her remark at the SSKM hospital on Thursday in connection with the ongoing standoff.
Reports of government doctors leaving job came from city’s various hospitals, including National Medical College and Hospital, North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, Sagar Dutta Memorial hospital and other district hospitals.
The health system in West Bengal has virtually collapsed in all the government run OPDs since Tuesday, following strike by the junior doctors at NRS Hospital first, and thereafter by other government hospitals.
In view of the gravity of the situation, Union health minister Dr. Vardhan shot off a letter to Banerjee seeking her urgent intervention. “The states should take all possible preventive and deterrent measures, as deemed required so that a peaceful environment prevails and doctors and clinical establishments discharge their duties and professional pursuit without fear or any violence and attacks on them. Together we shall ensure safe and cordial environment for doctors and patients,” Dr Vardhan said.
(With agency reports)
