New Delhi: A massive strike by doctors across the country on Monday – to be held in solidarity with doctors in West Bengal who agreed for talks with the government after six days of protest – will hit medical services. The Supreme Court on Monday said it will hear a plea on Tuesday seeking safety measures for government doctors.
The strike comes amid allegations that a resident doctor at the country’s top medical institute AIIMS in Delhi was abused by the relatives of a patient around 1 am on Sunday. Monday’s strike was called by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to condemn the attack on a doctor by relatives of a patient who died at Kolkata’s NRS Medical College last week. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given a 3 pm appointment to the junior doctors of the Kolkata hospital, but the junior doctors said they haven’t got an official call for talks.
The IMA said doctors will not offer non-essential services such as out-patient departments and elective surgeries at hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and diagnostic centres. All emergency services will remain active.
In a statement, AIIMS junior doctors said they won’t report to duty from noon till 6 am on Tuesday in protest against the alleged abuse one of their colleagues had gone through on Sunday. Intensive care units and emergency services will remain open.
The junior doctors at AIIMS also marched in protest on the campus on Monday morning, as planned, to show solidarity to the protesting doctors in Bengal. The AIIMS resident doctors said they will meet Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and ask for better security.
The junior doctors in Bengal, who had so far refused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s appeal for talks, softened their stand on Sunday. “We are keen to end this impasse. We are ready to hold talks with the chief minister at a venue of her choice, provided it is held in the open, in the presence of media persons, and not behind closed doors,” a spokesperson of the doctors said after a two-hour meeting.
On Friday, in response to the government’s offer for talks, the doctors had put forth a six-point demand that included better security, action against those who assaulted the junior doctor and an apology from Mamata Banerjee, who earlier said the striking doctors were “outsiders”.
