More than 48 senior doctors and faculty members of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata have offered mass resignation in support of junior doctors on strike since Saturday. After the junior doctors’ strike for two months, the decision was made, to request better security and infrastructural facilities for state medical colleges in West Bengal.
Senior physician in the ENT department, Dr. Debabrata Das, was absolutely on the same page, slowly saying, “Junior doctors are like our children.” We could not just watch them losing their valuable health.” The action of the senior doctors who have defied the state government and resigned en masse is meant to appeal to the state government to begin negotiating with the striking junior doctors in good faith. Another doctor who resigned was Sumit Hazra: “We shall continue our duty till our resignation letters are accepted,” he said. The position cannot remain at this status quo.”
On the same day, junior doctors studying in various state medical colleges sit for 12 hours on token hunger fast for the same demands: justice for the recently sexually harassed trainee doctor, revocation of the state health secretary, a centralized referral system with intranet real-time availability of beds in the hospitals. This protest has been carried out following the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor in RG Kar in August.
Regarding this, the West Bengal government proposed new schemes that will be implemented to ensure better safety in hospitals, including the “Press Panic Call Button” system and the ‘Bed Availability Tracker’ going live from November 1. Nevertheless, junior doctors insist on their stand to emphasize getting their demands.
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