RG Kar Rape-Murder Case: Junior doctors call off strike, to resume work from Saturday

Kolkata: In a significant development within the rape and murder case pf a trainee doctor in Kolkata, the Junior doctors of West Bengal has determined to call off strike and  to come back to work from Saturday. The state capital has been rocked with massive protests ever since the alleged rape and murder of the trainee doctor and subsequent allegations of widespread corruption at government healthcare facilities and arm-twisting of students and trainee doctors, leading to demands for an action against the health secretary.

The protesting doctors said they highlighted issues of their safety inside state-run hospital premises, and small print of formulation and functions of the promised task force at the meeting. The medics raised matters pertaining to transparency in referral systems, bed allocation to patients, recruitment of healthcare workers, and an end to the prevailing “threat culture” on campuses.

Junior doctors raise demands

Representation of students in unions, hostels and decision making bodies of hospitals, putting in of school-level task forces, and holding of school council and resident doctors’ association elections, were also raised within the meeting.

The doctors said their demands were “inextricably linked” to the concern that a gruesome crime like the one who took place at RG Kar Sanatorium never gets repeated.

“The federal government agreed that most of our demands were just and needed immediate implementation. But we were disappointed at the tip of the talks when the manager secretary refused to supply us a signed minutes of the meeting,” a health care provider said.

An unsigned minutes of the meeting released by the Bengal government after the meeting stated that the junior doctors demanded the formation of an inquiry committee against the Principal Health Secretary for alleged misconduct over the past Four-5 years, that encompass fostering a health syndicate. The Chief Secretary emphasised a comprehensive inquiry into the state’s health system is needed.

(With inputs from agencies)