Junior doctors and Opposition parties on Thursday said the suspension of 12 doctors, including postgraduate trainees, over the death of a new mother at Midnapore was an attempt by Mamata Banerjee to hide her failure as the health minister to stop the use of “substandard” Ringer’s lactate.

Within three hours of the chief minister announcing the doctors’ suspension and confirming that a CID probe would be initiated against them, junior doctors held a protest rally in Calcutta.

“You can’t save yourself (as health minister) by shifting the blame solely to the doctors. The people of Bengal will unearth the actual truth behind the death of the new mother. The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front will soon call a meeting and announce its movement against the decision to suspend 12 doctors,” said Aniket Mahato, a member of the junior doctors’ outfit and a prominent figure in the RG Kar movement.

Mamata, during a news conference at the state secretariat, Nabanna, directly accused the doctors of negligence in duty, which resulted in the death of the new mother at Midnapore Medical College and Hospital and led to a critical health crisis for three others.

The junior doctors’s march was from RG Kar Medical College and Hospital to Shyam Bazar five points.

When the junior doctors were asked about Mamata’s accusation against members of their fraternity, they pointed to previous deaths of lactating mothers.

“If that’s the case, then what happened in 2012, 2022, and 2023 when many new mothers died? Who is responsible for those deaths? Why did the health department not take steps during those incidents?” asked Mahato, who wondered whether demanding Mamata’s resignation as health minister would be unethical.

The incident of the new mother’s death in Midnapore caused a political uproar and raised questions over the use of “sub-standard” RL, manufactured by Paschim Banga Pharmaceuticals — a company that has been blacklisted by the Karnataka government over the deaths of six lactating mothers following the use of its RL last year.

Health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam, who accompanied chief minister Mamata Banerjee and chief secretary Manoj Pant at Thursday’s news conference, claimed that the department sent a sample of RL to the laboratory to determine whether it contained impurities.

Calcutta High Court on Thursday also raised questions about the use of the fluid and asked the state government to take action against the manufacturing company.

However, Opposition parties have posed uncomfortable questions, pointing out that the state’s decision not to stop the use of the solution made by the particular company, even after its production was suspended on December 10, raises concerns.

Opposition parties, including the BJP and the CPM, unequivocally echoed the junior doctors, claiming that the chief minister tried to deflect the responsibility of those in the government by shifting blame to the doctors, who exposed the state health department’s failure after the RG Kar brutality case, in which a postgraduate trainee doctor was raped and murdered.

They also termed the punishment as a reflection of the government’s vindictive attitude towards the medical fraternity.

A CPM leader said doctors, particularly junior doctors, had led a “people’s movement” that had embarrassed the ruling regime in the aftermath of the RG Kar incident and the suspension was “Mamata Banerjee’s way of getting back at them”.

BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said the chief minister shifted the blame to the on-duty doctors to conceal the failure of her health department.

“Our chief minister always tries to shift blame to others to save herself as we saw in earlier incidents. This time, too, she followed the same strategy and suspended 12 doctors. The big question is why the Bengal government did not think before using the fluids manufactured by a company that has been blacklisted by the Karnataka government?” asked Majumdar, who is also a junior Union minister.

“Does this mean that there is no one in the health department to look into such anomalies with medicines or that a substantial amount of “cut money” from Paschim Banga Pharmaceuticals reaches the health minister and other ruling party leaders?”
he added.

CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty demanded that, instead of suspending the doctors, the government suspend the health secretary and ensure the resignation of the health minister.

“It was not the doctors who allowed the use of the sub-standard Ringer’s lactate to the patients. It was done by the health department, headed by Mamata Banerjee. It is unjust to shift the responsibility to a few doctors to conceal the malpractice by the health department. The health secretary and the health minister should be suspended, not those doctors,” said Chakraborty.