Doctors Go On Strike Again In West Bengal

Junior doctors attached to government hospitals across West Bengal on Tuesday restarted their ‘cease-work’ to protest Mamata Banerjee government’s “inaction” on their demands for safety and reform in the healthcare system. The doctors held a governing body meeting for almost the entire night before announcing their decision to go for indefinite and total cease work from Tuesday morning.

“We are compelled to return to a full ‘cease-work’ starting today. Unless we receive clear action from the Government on safety, patient services, and the politics of fear, we will have no choice but to continue our full strike,” the striking doctors said in a statement issued this morning.

They also put forward their concerns over delays in the investigation into the rape and murder of the trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and criticised both the CBI and the Supreme Court for the slow progress in the case. In their statement on Tuesday, the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF) put forth ten demands, including the removal of the State’s Health Secretary, task forces in every medical college, increased police protection in hospitals, and immediate hiring for all staff vacancies.
Rampant corruption and lawlessness in West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) and West Bengal Health Recruitment Board (WBHRB) must be brought under inquiry immediately, the junior doctors said.

A statement issued by junior medics also called for a march from College Square to Esplanade in central Kolkata on Wednesday and invited people from all walks of life to join them. “Let our protest continue for justice for our deceased sister, for a healthy, people-oriented, fear-free healthcare system, and above all, to eliminate the politics of fear from society,” the statement added.

On Tuesday, the WBJDF highlighted that despite the junior doctors resuming duty, there has been little progress by the Mamata Banerjee Government in implementing the directives, like installing CCTVs, recruiting police, ensuring a centralised referral system or hiring healthcare workers. Protesting junior doctor Aniket Mahato underlined that ensuring safety for healthcare workers would require the administration to implement infrastructural measures as well as to take strict action against the perpetrators behind the doctor’s rape and murder.

“As we had promised, we resumed essential services including partially in IPD and OPD in the last 12 days after our two meetings with the State Government. We wished to see a proactive approach by the State Government in fulfilling what they had promised us. But all they did was issue directives, with no steps to materialise those directives,” Mahato said.
The agitating junior doctors alleged that the State Government had not taken adequate steps to ensure security and safety in hospitals. The junior doctors want inquiry committees formed to handle the issue of intimidation and harassment within medical colleges. These committees should investigate those who threaten doctors, and take appropriate action. They are also asking for a State-level inquiry to address systemic corruption.

The doctors want the Government to hold the Health Department administration responsible for the ills that plague the healthcare system and take quick action to replace Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam. The doctors want the immediate implementation of a centralised referral system in all Government hospitals and medical colleges across the State. Such a system, they said, would allow for better coordination in patient care, ensuring that patients are directed to hospitals with available beds and appropriate services, reducing delays in treatment. Similarly, the doctors want a digital bed-vacancy monitoring system to be set up in every Government medical college and hospital. This system would provide real-time information about bed availability, helping both patients and doctors manage hospital admissions more efficiently, and prevent overcrowding, the doctors say. The doctors want task forces to be formed in all Government medical colleges and hospitals. These task forces should include elected representatives of junior doctors to address safety concerns.