Junior doctors in West Bengal are making their protest more aggressive; they plan to stir at the state level in West Bengal on October 22 if their demands are ignored. The protest came after the brutal attack on a postgraduate trainee doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, who was raped and murdered in August. The agitating medics have been out on the streets demonstrating for almost two months and have now given the state government an ultimatum to meet what they want by October 21.
One of the protest marshals and junior doctors, Debasish Halder, reiterated the need for dialogues with the Chief Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee. “We want the chief minister to remain seated for one discussion and satisfy all our demands. Failing this, the junior and senior doctors in all the government and private medical facilities will strike on Tuesday,” Halder said.
The junior doctors are now asking for justice to be served for a colleague killed in the recent past and proper working conditions for staff. They have given an ultimatum that they would not allow any OPD patients for the treatment unless they got the following demands met: A centralized referral system so that they can be posted to Government hospitals of their own choice, Strengthening of Health centres and infrastructure Removal of West Bengal Health Secretary N S Nigam. They are also calling for better security measures at work and in places such as canned cameras in hospitals and proper on-call rooms and washrooms.
Casting further pressure on their demands, Hazra said some of their colleagues have been on fast-unto-death for fourteen days, but the chief minister has not given them any heed. “It is necessary to understand that she is the guardian of the state while we are like her children. Could she not come to us once as per our legitimate grievances?” interviewed Sayantani Ghosh Hazra, a postgraduate trainee doctor of the hospital who has been on fast since October 5th.
Doctors have also called for an assessment of bed spaces with regard to implementing bed space tracking in order to enhance the handling of the patients in all medical facilities, the panel stating that these measures are necessary.
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