Kolkata: A section of senior doctors, who have been urging the juniors to choose another mode of protest but the cease-work, have welcomed the decision of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF). For the faculty members and other senior doctors who had been taking the entire load upon their shoulders during the past 42 days, this move by the junior doctors is also a huge relief.
The junior doctors have been on cease-work for 42 days and protesting in the vicinity of Swasthya Bhawan since Sept 10.
“Even if the withdrawal of the cease-work is only partial, their resuming work will help a lot in patient care services. Senior doctors have taken on a huge workload all these days and they will finally get some relief,” said an administrator of a medical college in Kolkata.
While there was a feeling among a section of junior doctors of lifting the case-work in a graded manner in the past couple of days, especially after the WBJDF team’s meeting with chief secretary Manoj Pant on Tuesday, the WBJDF decided to stay put with the cease-work. They wanted the govt to issue directives on their demands. Finally, the directive was issued on Thursday bringing a ray of hope for the impasse to end.
“Prolonged cease-work is not sustainable. It is a good decision that they have decided to resume work. I hope the govt also reciprocates by implementing its assurance in a time-bound manner,” said Pradip Mitra, former director of medical education.
Even as all seniors across hospitals have been supporting their move unconditionally with many even protesting with the juniors beyond their duty hours, many had started hinting at tremendous work pressure on faculty members who are very senior.
“This is a move in the right direction for a sustained movement which has now become a mass movement. These junior doctors bear a lot of workload, including emergency. Adopting another mode of movement for justice is a wise move,” said Abhijit Chowdhury, former head of haepatology at IPGMER. “It’s good that they have decided to return,” said an NRS doctor.