Docs Resign, IMA Calls for Strike: 10 Points on WB Medical Crisis

Video Producer: Srishti Tyagi

Video Editor: Vishal Kumar

The ongoing doctors’ protest, which started in Kolkata, spread to other parts of West Bengal and is now resonating in the rest of the country. Both the doctors and the Mamata Banerjee-led state government are yet to relent and the situation is only worsening with doctors now starting to resign.

Here are ten points to sum up the latest developments:

• Hundreds of doctors tendered their resignations across various government hospitals in West Bengal. In the morning, 80 doctors of RG Kar Hospital resigned. Later, in the evening, doctors in SSKM and NRS Hospital followed suit. So far, over 300 doctors have resigned, according to state health ministry sources. More are expected to follow, if the impasse is not resolved.
• As a part of its three-day nationwide protest, medical practitioners' body Indian Medical Association (IMA) has called for a strike on Monday, 17 June with withdrawal of non-essential health services. All non-essential services including OPDs will be withdrawn for 24 hours from 6 am on Monday while emergency and causality services will continue to function.
• Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has written to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asking her to intervene in the matter and provide a secure working environment for doctors in the state. Meanwhile, he also appealed to the agitating doctors, particularly in West Bengal, to hold symbolic protests and resume work so that patients do not suffer.

• The agitating doctors on Friday, demanded Mamata's unconditional apology and set six conditions for the state government to withdraw their four-day-long stir. Apart from the CM's apology, the doctors have demanded her intervention in the matter, judicial enquiry against the inactivity of the police, unconditional withdrawal of all cases slapped against junior doctors and improvement of infrastructure and posting of armed police personnel at health facilities.
• Doctors and health professionals from across the country have joined in solidarity with their colleagues in West Bengal.
• Earlier, state West Bengal Education minister Partha Chatterjee, in a Facebook post, appealed to striking junior doctors to "keep aside" misunderstandings and withdraw their agitation. On Thursday, Mamata had given them a four-hour ultimatum to withdraw strike and threatened them of action otherwise. As the doctors defied her ultimatum, she too had appealed to them in a Facebook post.

• On Friday, Mamata Banerjee's kin were also spotted in the protests. Abesh Banerjee, her nephew, who is a doctor at KPC Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata was seen at the protest armed with a poster. Kolkata Mayor and state urban development minister Firhad Hakim's daughter Shabba, also a doctor, had on Thursday criticised the state government on social media for its alleged inaction in the matter.
• Meanwhile, state BJP leaders led by Mukul Roy met West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to apprise him of the situation. After the meeting, speaking to the media, Roy demanded the resignation of Mamata from her post of home minister and health minister of the state.
• Filmmaker Aparna Sen also met protesting doctors at Kolkata's NRS College & Hospital on Friday. "I'd like to request CM to come here and talk to the doctors. If you felt bad due to someone’s behavior, please forgive them. Do you think it'll be good for Bengal if they will leave our state,” she said.
• On Thursday, Professor Saibal Kumar Mukherjee and Professor Saurabh Chattopadhyay resigned as the Principal and Medical Superintendent/vice principal, respectively, of NRS Medical College and Hospital.