The junior doctors’ strike at Kolkata’s NRS Medical College & Hospital and several other state-run hospitals in West Bengal continued on Thursday even as chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited the SSKM hospital and asked the doctors to get back to work.
She has also issued an appeal to the senior doctors saying she would be obliged if the poor people coming from different parts of the state were taken care of.
Banerjee issued an ultimatum to the striking junior doctors on Thursday morning saying that it was an emergency service and they had no right to go on strike as it was inconveniencing patients from all over the state.
The junior doctors at NRS Hospital have been on strike since Tuesday after some of them were beaten up by relatives of a patient who died at the hospital on Monday night. One of the junior doctors is admitted to the hospital with skull injury.
Banerjee’s ultimatum resulted in opening of the emergency services at SSKM hospital from 2 pm, but the same impact was not felt in the other hospitals including NRS. The situation became tense in the afternoon all over again as some “outsiders” went inside the hospital premises and broke some fans and lights where the junior doctors were holding their sit-in. Police intervened and the main gates were closed all over again. They were also discussing the possibility of mass resignation.
Banerjee has warned today that the junior doctors who don’t get back to work will have to leave the hostel. “They are outsiders. The government will not help them. I condemn doctors who have gone on strike. Policemen die in the line of duty but they don’t go on strike,” she said. “They are doing this at the instigation of some people who want chaos in the state. I appeal that good sense prevail,” she said. “The Supreme Court has clear instructions that those in emergency services cannot go on strike like this,” she said.
The junior doctors have demanded armed policemen to offer them security at the hospital while they work. During the day, they also met Governor Keshari Nath Tripathy and told him about their demands on safety and security. They also wanted to know of the action taken on those who assaulted the NRS junior doctors. They said the CM’s speech at SSKM appeared like a threat.
The strike has hit not only services in state-run hospitals but also emergency wards and outdoor services in private hospitals, who have gone on strike to show solidarity. There are also reports that doctors in hospitals outside Bengal – including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, are also extending their support to the strike.
The issue has not remained a clash between the state administration and the junior doctors, but already assumed political colour, with Bharatiya Janata Party’s Mukul Roy alleging that members of a “particular community” had led the attack on doctors, and they belonged to the Trinamool Congress. Even state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said that the administration was not taking action against them because they were her voters.
Banerjee reacted sharply saying that the BJP and the CPIM were indulging in Hindu-Muslim politics and the BJP was using the opportunity to create communal tension in Bengal.
