Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday condemned the alleged rape and murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, while appealing to protesting medics to return to work for the sake of the patients.
Healthcare services were affected in Jharkhand during the day, as doctors joined the Indian Medical Association’s nationwide call for the withdrawal of non-emergency services for 24 hours from 6 am on Saturday.
Soren also said he has directed the DGP to take strict steps to ensure the safety of all the staff working in state hospitals.
"No matter how much the incident in Bengal is condemned, it is less. The Bengal government and the agencies of the central government are working hard to ensure that the culprits are punished as severely as possible,” the CM said in a post in Hindi on X.
"I would like to appeal to all the doctors in the state that your government stands with you in this hour of grief, but the treatment of patients is also very important. Please return to work and give your meaningful cooperation in making the patients healthy," he said.
Members of the IMA, the Jharkhand State Health Association (JHSA), the Association of Healthcare Providers, among others, took out a march in Ranchi on Saturday in protest against the Kolkata incident.
"We seek justice for the trainee doctor, and condemn the vandalism carried out at RG Kar hospital," IMA's state secretary Dr Pradeep Kumar Singh said.
Singh said the IMA has been demanding the implementation of the Medical Protection Act (MPA), and an amendment to the Clinical Establishment Act (CEA) at the earliest in Jharkhand for the benefit of doctors and patients.
Junior doctors at RIMS-Ranchi have been on ceasework since August 13 to protest against the postgraduate trainee's rape-murder. Doctors at five other medical colleges in the state joined the stir on Friday.
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