Kolkata, Ending the stalemate that has persisted for the last 41 days, the agitated young doctors announced the end of their sit-in outside Swasthya Bhawan on Friday and partial resumption of duties involving provision of essential services in state-run hospitals from Saturday.
Doctors also announced setting up of medical camps at Abhaya, in memory of the brutally murdered trainee doctor RG Kar, in flood-affected regions of the state starting Friday.
To mark the retirement of their 10-day dharna before Swasthya Bhawan, the shocked doctors gave a call to march to the CBI office at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake at 3 pm on Friday seeking justice for the victim of RG Kar and a quick summary. "Given the flood situation in West Bengal and the fact that the state government has accepted certain demands of ours, we will partially join emergency and essential services from Saturday," an agitated doctor said on Thursday after the general meeting.
The protesting doctors said they would not work in the Out Patient Department (OPD) but would partially work in essential and emergency services.
"We will wait a week for the West Bengal government to implement all their promises and if they fail to fulfill them, we will resume 'stop work'," the doctors said. The announcements came soon after Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, giving Following up on issues discussed at Wednesday's meeting between agitated junior doctors and the state task force, he issued a list of directives on safety and enabling environment for healthcare professionals, saying those orders need to be implemented immediately.
"The directives issued today reflect a partial acceptance of our demands in terms of ensuring security on campuses. We consider it a limited victory given that earlier the state also acceded to our demands to remove the Kolkata Police Commissioner and senior officials. of the health department.
"The arrests of former RG Kar chief Sandip Ghosh and Tala PS OC were also shots in the arm of our movement. Therefore, we will end our agitation here and return to essential services. But our fight is far away to end," said Aniket Mahato, one of the agitating doctors. It is the human responsibility of doctors to help people in danger in the flooded regions of the state due to the threat of floods, he added.
"In its directive, the government has studiously avoided addressing the issue of the persistent culture of threat in medical colleges and the ways and means to restore the democratic atmosphere on the campuses. There is no effective direction to end the climate of fear among junior doctors and there is no guarantee that the RG Kar incident will never be repeated in the future," added Debasish Halder, another junior doctor.
Halder confirmed that doctors would continue their protests at their respective colleges. “We will draw up a standard operating procedure detailing the nature of essential services that junior doctors would attend. This SOP will vary from hospital to hospital depending on the nature of the operations.” emergencies that they attend to," he said.
The doctors clarified their intentions to continue taking to the streets and fighting before the Supreme Court "until justice is done for Abhaya."
The chief secretary's instructions came hours after the young doctors presented Pant with a draft of the key points of their meeting with the government on Wednesday night, which turned out to be inconclusive due to the State's alleged refusal to sign the minutes of the meeting (MoM). .Pant, in a two-page communication addressed to Principal Secretary (Health) NS Nigam, issued 10 directives, including the need for "adequate availability of utility rooms, toilets, CCTV and drinking water facilities in healthcare centres" .
The work in this regard must be concluded as soon as possible, the statement reads.
He also stated that the state has appointed former DGP Surajit Kar Purkayastha to conduct security audits of all medical colleges and hospitals. The directive included instructions to fully functionalize all hospital committees, including internal grievance committees, details on deployment of security personnel on campuses, the creation of a centralized helpline number in healthcare centers and an alarm system with a panic call button.
Earlier, the protesting doctors had sent the chief secretary a draft of the key findings of the talks that took place between them and the government on Wednesday night, detailing the points that were discussed and agreed upon by the two sides.
The draft contained 15 points as suggestions for directives to be issued by the state, which included setting up separate inquiry committees at the central and university levels to identify and initiate departmental proceedings against those responsible for perpetrating the "threat culture" in the universities. medical campuses.A cursory comparison between the draft issued by the agitated doctors and the SC directive showed that the State had issued corresponding instructions to implement nine of those 15 demands.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier transferred Kolkata Police Chief Vineet Goyal and appointed Manoj Kumar Verma in her place, while she removed the directors of medical education and health services.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal Medical Council canceled the registration of former RG Kar Medical College principal Sandip Ghosh. Ghosh, an orthopedic surgeon currently in CBI custody, has been removed from the list of registered doctors maintained by the WBMC.
Doctors also announced setting up of medical camps at Abhaya, in memory of the brutally murdered trainee doctor RG Kar, in flood-affected regions of the state starting Friday.
To mark the retirement of their 10-day dharna before Swasthya Bhawan, the shocked doctors gave a call to march to the CBI office at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake at 3 pm on Friday seeking justice for the victim of RG Kar and a quick summary. "Given the flood situation in West Bengal and the fact that the state government has accepted certain demands of ours, we will partially join emergency and essential services from Saturday," an agitated doctor said on Thursday after the general meeting.
The protesting doctors said they would not work in the Out Patient Department (OPD) but would partially work in essential and emergency services.
"We will wait a week for the West Bengal government to implement all their promises and if they fail to fulfill them, we will resume 'stop work'," the doctors said. The announcements came soon after Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, giving Following up on issues discussed at Wednesday's meeting between agitated junior doctors and the state task force, he issued a list of directives on safety and enabling environment for healthcare professionals, saying those orders need to be implemented immediately.
"The directives issued today reflect a partial acceptance of our demands in terms of ensuring security on campuses. We consider it a limited victory given that earlier the state also acceded to our demands to remove the Kolkata Police Commissioner and senior officials. of the health department.
"The arrests of former RG Kar chief Sandip Ghosh and Tala PS OC were also shots in the arm of our movement. Therefore, we will end our agitation here and return to essential services. But our fight is far away to end," said Aniket Mahato, one of the agitating doctors. It is the human responsibility of doctors to help people in danger in the flooded regions of the state due to the threat of floods, he added.
"In its directive, the government has studiously avoided addressing the issue of the persistent culture of threat in medical colleges and the ways and means to restore the democratic atmosphere on the campuses. There is no effective direction to end the climate of fear among junior doctors and there is no guarantee that the RG Kar incident will never be repeated in the future," added Debasish Halder, another junior doctor.
Halder confirmed that doctors would continue their protests at their respective colleges. “We will draw up a standard operating procedure detailing the nature of essential services that junior doctors would attend. This SOP will vary from hospital to hospital depending on the nature of the operations.” emergencies that they attend to," he said.
The doctors clarified their intentions to continue taking to the streets and fighting before the Supreme Court "until justice is done for Abhaya."
The chief secretary's instructions came hours after the young doctors presented Pant with a draft of the key points of their meeting with the government on Wednesday night, which turned out to be inconclusive due to the State's alleged refusal to sign the minutes of the meeting (MoM). .Pant, in a two-page communication addressed to Principal Secretary (Health) NS Nigam, issued 10 directives, including the need for "adequate availability of utility rooms, toilets, CCTV and drinking water facilities in healthcare centres" .
The work in this regard must be concluded as soon as possible, the statement reads.
He also stated that the state has appointed former DGP Surajit Kar Purkayastha to conduct security audits of all medical colleges and hospitals. The directive included instructions to fully functionalize all hospital committees, including internal grievance committees, details on deployment of security personnel on campuses, the creation of a centralized helpline number in healthcare centers and an alarm system with a panic call button.
Earlier, the protesting doctors had sent the chief secretary a draft of the key findings of the talks that took place between them and the government on Wednesday night, detailing the points that were discussed and agreed upon by the two sides.
The draft contained 15 points as suggestions for directives to be issued by the state, which included setting up separate inquiry committees at the central and university levels to identify and initiate departmental proceedings against those responsible for perpetrating the "threat culture" in the universities. medical campuses.A cursory comparison between the draft issued by the agitated doctors and the SC directive showed that the State had issued corresponding instructions to implement nine of those 15 demands.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier transferred Kolkata Police Chief Vineet Goyal and appointed Manoj Kumar Verma in her place, while she removed the directors of medical education and health services.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal Medical Council canceled the registration of former RG Kar Medical College principal Sandip Ghosh. Ghosh, an orthopedic surgeon currently in CBI custody, has been removed from the list of registered doctors maintained by the WBMC.
