DAYS AFTER Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee gave in to their demand to shunt out senior police and health officials, protesting junior doctors on Thursday announcing a “partial” lifting of their “cease-work”, saying they would resume essential and emergency services in hospitals from Saturday, but would not work in the Out Patient Department (OPD).
They said they would also end their sit-in protest outside Swasthya Bhawan, the state health department headquarters, after marching to the CBI office on Friday. The protesters, however, added that their “fight for justice” would continue.
The doctors have been protesting since August 9, following the rape-and-murder of a junior doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital.
Saying that while they had achieved “initial victory” as “majority” of their demands had been met, the junior doctors, in a statement, said their “demand for justice” had “not been fully met” yet, and their movement would continue.
They said they took the decision to resume essential services after the chief secretary responded to their demand regarding safety and security of doctors. “The correspondence mentioned the issuance of several guidelines… (which) outline several initiatives for our safety,” they said.
“Government directives have been issued for CCTV installation, designated rooms for doctors, water supply arrangements, and the presence of female police officers and special police patrols in colleges, along with panic alarm systems,” said the statement.
“A centralised referral system has been introduced, with proposals for monitoring the number of vacant beds in hospitals. We hope this will alleviate some of the harassment faced by patients due to bed shortages and the influence of middlemen,” it said.
“However, we have yet to receive specific guidelines regarding the termination of the threat culture in colleges and creating a democratic atmosphere in colleges, as we had proposed. Only a grievance cell has been suggested, meaning there has been no action regarding our demand about student elections in medical colleges,” it said.
“We will return to each medical college to discuss the SOP for essential services and will join the essential services from the day after tomorrow, while our strike on other issues will continue. Even though we are returning to work, we want to emphasise that the interim responsibility for safety lies with the state administration. If there is any failure in this regard, we will have to take strict measures again,” said the statement.
“Our protest outside Swasthya Bhawan was based on five demands… The CM held a meeting and there was some positive outcome, including the transfer of senior officials. We have been wanting to know the progress of the CBI investigation. We had raised the question of safety and security,” said Dr Aniket Mahato, a prominent face of the protest.
“Today, we were informed of a directive from the chief secretary, which lists measures like a panic button in the ‘on-call duty room’, CCTV cameras etc. We feel we could bring some changes, but there are still some safety and security issues that remain… Our fight for justice will continue, it’s not over yet,” he said.
“We cannot shrug off our responsibility as doctors amid the flood-like situation in the state,” said Dr Mahato. The junior doctors have decided to organise medical camps in flood-affected areas of the state.
“We will get justice, our legal fight in the Supreme Court will continue. We will partially join essential services. We are drafting an SOP (standard operating procedure) for that. If we see that the government is not cooperating in fulfilling our demands, we will intensify our protest,” said Dr Debashish Halder, another protester.
On Monday, after the government held the first round of talks with the protesters, CM Banerjee had announced the removal of then Kolkata Commissioner of Police (CP) Vineet Kumar Goyal, then Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Abhishek Gupta, then Director of Medical Education (DME) Debashish Halder and then Director of Health Services (DHS) Koustav Nayek.
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