The healthcare services in government-owned hospitals across West Bengal were affected for the fourth day on Tuesday as the Junior doctors intensified their ongoing agitation with a new slogan “No safety no duty”.
The Junior doctors were protesting the alleged rape and murder of a second-year postgraduate female doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital premises in north Kolkata on Friday.
The protesters at a general body meeting comprising 21 government hospitals on Monday night decided to intensify the current agitation with 6-point resolutions, the announcement of a court monitored judicial inquiry within 48 hours.
” The junior doctors are not satisfied with the present 11-member SIT probe and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s assurance to handover the case to the CBI if the Kolkata Police failed to solve the case by Sunday ( July 18), according to the protesters.
Meanwhile, the doctors at the National Medical College and Hospital in the Park Circus area began fresh agitation and locked the chamber of the Principal when the ousted R G Kar Medical College Principal Sandip Ghosh was given a fresh appointment as the Principal of the National Medical College and Hospital.
Ghosh under pressure from the students resigned from the post on Monday morning but hours later he was appointed as the Principal of National Medical College and Hospital.
The protesters on Tuesday did not allow the patient’s welfare committee Chairperson Swarna Kamal Saha to negotiate with the protesters opposed to the appointment of Ghosh.
” We do not want this hospital to be the second RG Kar hospital as this hospital is our second home,” the junior doctors told Saha when he tried to enter the Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the Bengal government to produce the case diary of the investigation into the alleged rape and murder of the 31-year old junior trainee doctor by 1 PM, sources said.
The High Court directive came after the bereaved parents pleaded for a court-monitored probe into the case, as some five PILs have been filed before the Chief Justice bench demanding a CBI inquiry into the case.
The Division bench of Calcutta HC comprising Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam has expressed concern over the efficiency of the current SIT investigation.
The court also enquired about former RG Kar hospital Principal’s initial statement about the mysterious death of the female trainee medic and his reappointment in another government hospital after he resigned from RG Kar Medical College on Monday.
The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association announced the extension of its indefinite cease work to protest the alleged rape and murder of the trainee doctor after their meeting with the Union Health Ministry failed to yield any result, a report reaching here said.
The Lalbazar, Kolkata Police HQs again summoned the Assistant Superintendent of the Cardiology department and three others for the second day on Tuesday for questioning.
The bereaved father had said that the Assistant Superintendent had said that his daughter died by suicide.
Reports from the districts said that the healthcare services in government Hospitals have been affected due to the agitation by doctors, and two deaths were reported in Malda and Murshidabad.
The OPDs have remained almost inoperative with skeleton senior medics even as patients’ appearance was very less due to the cease work agitation by junior doctors demanding”justice” and assurances from the government that such incidents won’t recur.
