The sit-in protest by the junior doctors in Kolkata over the brutal rape-murder of a trainee doctor at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, will come to an end 'partially' tomorrow. The move came after the West Bengal government issued a list of directives on the safety, security and conducive environment for healthcare professionals, and ordered them to be implemented immediately.
But, the resumption of duties after over 40 days come with a caveat—that the 'cease-work' will resume if the state government does not fulfil all their promises within a week, and that the agitating doctors will rejoin only emergency and essential services, and not the Outpatient Department (OPD).
The doctors will also set up Abhaya medical camps, in memory of the trainee doctor, in flood-affected regions of the state. Six districts of the state were affected by the flood, which has killed three and affected 2.5 lakh people in south West Bengal.
"Given the flood situation in West Bengal and the state government agreeing to certain demands of ours, we will be rejoining emergency and essential services partially from Saturday," an agitating doctor told PTI after their general body meeting.
The doctors will march from the Swasthya Bhawan to the CBI office at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake at 3pm today seeking justice for the RG Kar victim and a quick wrap up of investigations, to mark the withdrawal of their 10-day dharna here.
Fight far from over
Aniket Mahato, one of the agitating doctors, told PTI: "The directives issued reflects partial acceptance of our demands in terms of ensuring safety and security at campuses. We consider that a limited victory given that previously the state also acceded to our demands of removing the Kolkata police commissioner and senior health department officials.
"The arrests of ex-RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh and Tala PS OC were also shots in the arm of our movement. We will, hence, end our stir here and return to essential services. But our fight is far from over," he said.
It is the doctors' humane responsibility to aid people in distress in the inundated regions of the state given the threatening flood situation, he added.
Debasish Halder, another junior medic, told PTI: "In its directive, the government has carefully avoided addressing the issue of persisting threat culture in medical colleges and ways and means to restore democratic atmosphere in campuses. There is no effective direction to end the climate of fear among junior doctors and there is no assurance that a repeat of the RG Kar incident will never take place in future," he added.
Halder also said that the doctors would continue with their demonstrations at their respective colleges, "till justice for Abhaya is received".
What are the directives issued by the state govt?
The doctors' announcement to resume work partially came shortly after Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, following a meeting between the medics and the state task force, issued a list of directives on the “safety, security and conducive environment for healthcare professionals”, and ordered they be implemented immediately.
The junior doctors had submitted a draft of the key takeaways of their meeting with the government on Wednesday night, which remained inconclusive as the state allegedly refused to sign the minutes of meeting (MoM), to Pant.
Pant, in a two-page communication to Principal Secretary (Health) N.S. Nigam, issued 10 directives, some of which are:
Adequate availability of on-duty rooms, washrooms, CCTVs and drinking water facilities in the healthcare facilities.
Former DGP Surajit Kar Purkayastha to conduct security audits of all medical colleges and hospitals.
Fully functionalise all hospital committees, including the Internal Complaints Committees
Deployment details of security personnel on campuses
Adequate number of police/security personnel along with female police/security personnel be deployed in every healthcare facility
Mobile teams to be deployed by local police authorities for surveillance especially during night hours
Set up a centralised helpline number in healthcare facilities
Set up a panic call button alarm system.
The state seems to have accepted most of the 15 demands that the agitating doctors had made in the draft.
