Jr docs to decide today on cease-work after SC sets them 5pm return-to-work deadline
Times of India | 10 September 2024
New Delhi/Kolkata: Junior doctors have postponed till Tuesday a decision on withdrawing their cease-work after Supreme Court on Monday set a Tuesday 5pm deadline for them to resume duty or face possible disciplinary action from the state.
Various doctors' organisations said after the SC hearing that they were "disheartened". A general body meeting of the West Bengal Junior Doctors' Front, which started at 1pm, continued till late night but failed to reach any decision on whether to call off the strike.Spokespersons said the cease-work would continue till at least the 5pm SC deadline, and the next course of action would be decided "taking into account the ground situation and govt moves, including the response to our key demands".
CM Mamata Banerjee, too, appealed to the doctors to rejoin work after the SC hearing. Most of their demands had already been accepted, including the suspension of some doctors, she said, adding: "Please join work. You are always welcome if you have anything to say. Bring a delegation of five-10 members and we can discuss the issues. Give us some time. Be a bit patient. It might not be possible for us to fulfil all your demands if you have 10 (demands). But please provide service to the people."
The CJI-led SC bench issued the ultimatum after Bengal's counsels Kapil Sibal and Astha Sharma submitted a report from the state health department that claimed 23 patients had died because of non-availability of resident doctors and 6 lakh patients were suffering.
Sibal said the 28-day strike by an estimated 28,000 resident doctors across the state had resulted in postponement of hundreds of cardiac surgeries and stenting operations. "The healthcare system may collapse if the agitation continues," he said.
The SC bench, addressing the agitating doctors, said: "If you resume work by Tuesday 5 p.m., no adverse disciplinary action will be taken by the government. However, you cannot say that you will not work. You must return to work and, if you do not, then it is open for the government to initiate disciplinary action. The resident doctors cannot be oblivious to the needs of the general community."
Doctors' groups said they were watching the emerging situation with a lot of unease. "We are disheartened that the SC has asked junior doctors, forerunners of this protest, to return to work by 5 p.m. on Tuesday. It is also shocking that junior doctors are being portrayed as responsible for the deaths. It is totally false as the movement has not hampered hospital services," the IMA (West Bengal) said in a release. "The patient death data is meant to mislead the public. This is a ploy to pressurise junior doctors," a Service Doctors' Forum member said.
Junior doctors have insisted that their key demands be met by 5 p.m. on Tuesday; the demands include speedy identification and punishment of all culprits, probing the roles of everyone suspected to be involved in tampering of evidence in the rape-murder case, the resignation of the commissioner of police, improved security on medical college campuses and eradicating "the threat culture" prevalent in the medical education system.
The SC bench also asked the state government to specify the steps it had taken to instil a sense of security and added that district magistrates and superintendents of police must deliberate with hospital heads to take appropriate measures, including provisioning of separate resting rooms and toilet facilities for male and female doctors and installation of CCTV cameras. The state informed that it had already sanctioned funds, the SC said, adding that complaints on security must be attended to promptly. "We want to ensure that doctors resume work. Doctors are in the system to render service to patients. We will provide every kind of security for doctors. But they must reciprocate. The state must ensure that no action, including punitive transfers, is taken against those who join duty," the bench ordered.