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Kolkata, June 14
More than 100 doctors in West Bengal have submitted their resignation in solidarity with protesting doctors, as an ongoing protest by healthcare providers has triggered somewhat of a crisis in several hospitals.
The doctors, including heads of departments of medical colleges and other hospitals in Kolkata, Burdwan, Darjeeling and North 24 Parganas districts, sent their resignation letters to the state director of medical education, a senior health department official told PTI.
"We express fullest solidarity to the current movement of NRS Medical College and Hosptial and other government hospitals agitating to protest the brutal attack on them while on duty," Dr P Kundu, director of the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, said in a resignation letter.
"We strongly stand by the demands of security and protection for all healthcare personnel and we have tried our best to continue life saving services in the interest of our patients till now," Prof (Dr) Dipanjan Bandyopadhyay, Head of Medicine department at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, wrote in the resignation letter which contained the signature of 34 other senior doctors.
"Under the present circumstances, it is not possible for us to continue our services indefinitely without minimum manpower resources. In the absence of any constructive development to end this crisis, we are pained to offer our resignation and request you to relieve us of our responsibilities," the resignation letter read.
The letter, signed by several doctors, said: “We the following doctors of R.G. Kar Medical College have so far been trying our level best to run the hospital service smoothly. You are aware that the present situation is not ideal for patient care service,” the doctors wrote.
“In response to the prevailing situation, as we are unable to provide service, we the following doctors would like to resign from our duty,” they wrote in the letter.
Also, nearly 100 doctors of the NRS Medical College and Hospital—the epicentre of the protests—are also opting for resignation, an official revealed.
In a similar letter to the Director of Medical Education, 17 doctors of Medicine Department of Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital have put their papers down. They too cited the same reason that they are unable to provide services in the present situation.
A similar picture was noticed in North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri.
“Already 15 senior doctors have submitted their resignation to Director of Medical Education and this figure may rise. It is not possible to carry on the services normally without the junior doctors,” Sudipta Mandal, Assistant Superintendent of North Bengal Medical College and Hospital said as the cease work by the Junior doctors of state-run hospital entered the fourth day.
The protest began at the state-run NRS Hospital on Tuesday morning bringing the regular services to a standstill, after a junior doctor was allegedly beaten up by the family of a 75-year-old patient who died there late on Monday night.
The family members of the deceased patient accused the hospital of medical negligence. An intern named Paribaha Mukherjee sustained a serious skull injury in the attack and was admitted in the intensive care unit of the Institute of Neurosciences.
With improvement in his condition, Mukherjee has been shifted to the general bed and will be released from the hospital soon.
The principal and the medical superintendent of the NRS Medical College and Hospital submitted their resignations on Thursday night.
Doctors in All India Institute of Medical Sciences—one of the country’s foremost and busiest medical institutes—held protests against the incident, and patients being turned away from the hospital. Similar protests were witnessed across the country, affecting daily work. Some hospitals meanwhile chose not to halt work but wore black bands in solidarity with the protesters.
Demands
Doctors in Bengal meanwhile are still seething, not only over the incident but also after what they perceive as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s “callous” response to their demands.
Doctors now want unconditional apology from her. They also have put six other conditions under which they claim they will withdraw their protest.
"We want unconditional apology of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the manner in which she had addressed us at the SSKM Hospital yesterday. She should not have said what she had," a spokesperson of the joint forum of junior doctors, Dr Arindam Dutta, said.
Listing the six conditions, the agitators said the chief minister will have to visit the injured doctors at the hospital and her office should release a statement condemning the attack on them.
"We also want immediate intervention of the chief minister. Documentary evidence of judicial enquiry against the inactivity of the police to provide protection to the doctors at the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital on Monday night should also be provided," he said.
"We demand documentary evidence and details of action taken against those who had attacked us," Dutta said.
Also part of their demands are withdrawal of all "false cases and charges" against protesting junior doctors and medical students, improving infrastructure in all health facilities and posting of armed police personnel there.
Protesters have taken offence to Banerjee’s claims she made while visiting the SSKM Hospital on Thursday. Banerjee told reporters outside the hospital on Thursday that "outsiders" had entered medical colleges to create disturbances and that the protest was a conspiracy by her rivals Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Agencies
Doctors’ conditions
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