The crisis in West Bengal’s health sector seemed to get worse with the doctors’ strike continuing for the fourth day on June 14, and hundreds of doctors from government-run hospitals and medical colleges across the State tendering their resignation en masse.
On June 14, doctors from Nil Ratan Sircar (NRS) Medical College, the Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial (SSKM) Hospital, the R.G. Kar Hospital, the Calcutta National Medical College and the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital submitted their resignations in protest against the repeated attacks on doctors in the State and the government’s apparent apathy in punishing the guilty. The previous day, a large number of doctors from Sagar Dutta Hospital in North 24 Paraganas had also resigned.
A brutal attack on junior doctors of the government-run NRS on June 11 following the death of a 75-year-old patient, Mohammad Sayeed, triggered a confrontation between the State government and the medical community. The situation was exacerbated by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s apparent intransigence to accept the demand of the doctors for greater security while carrying out their duties.
Mamata, instead of sympathising with the doctors, chose an aggressive hard-line stand, which led to a worsening of the situation. She tried to give the agitation a political colour by stating that many of the protesting doctors were “outsiders” and that the agitation was being orchestrated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She even threatened the doctors with “stern action” if they did not withdraw the strike. However, the doctors remained undeterred. “We were ready to rejoin work. But the Chief Minister’s attitude and language is what has brought matters to such a head,” said a senior doctor.
In a massive protest rally brought out on July 14, a large number of ordinary citizens, noted intellectuals, artistes and social workers walked alongside the doctors. “It was wonderful to see the kind of support we got today from people from all walks of life. It is now no longer a protest of doctors alone; it has become a social protest,” Dr Anjana Malhotra, who was walking in the rally, told Frontline .
The protest spiralled into a national issue with doctors from different parts of the country voicing their solidarity with the doctors in Kolkata. The Indian Medical Association has called for a nationwide strike on June 17. Meanwhile, the attack on doctors continued even as they sat in protest, allegedly by relatives of a patient at Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital.
Even as health services in the State are teetering on the verge of collapse, Mamata appears defiant and unrepentant. At a public meeting at Bipur, North 24 Parganas, she stuck to her earlier stand and continued to insist that a section of the protesting doctors were “outsiders”.
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