A meeting between the state government and several associations of senior doctors at Swasthya Bhavan on Monday did not yield any result, said doctors who participated in the meeting that continued for two-and-a-half hours.

Some doctors said they were disappointed with the response of state chief secretary Manoj Pant, who led thegovernment team at the talks, to the protesting junior doctors’ 10-point charter ofdemands.

Pant had invited the associations of senior doctors to the meeting through emails on Sunday evening. More than 15 doctors representing at least six organisations turned up for the talks.

After the meeting ended, Pant said the state government has met seven of the 10 demands.

“Of the 10 demands, seven have already been met. Work is in progress, which I am sure they will appreciate. We are monitoring it and we have sent a status report to the junior doctors. For the rest of the demands, they (the senior doctors) were insisting on certain timelines. Because these are certain administrative decisions which the state government has to take, timelines cannot be indicated or cannot be told right away. So we said we have noted your issues and grievances or your concerns, we will take a call at the appropriate point of time,”Pant said.

The chief secretary also appealed to the junior doctors to withdraw the fastunto death.

“We have requested the junior doctors through them (the seniors who attended the meeting) that the hunger strike should be withdrawn because we are concerned about their health and well-being. Today, I am again requesting them to withdraw the hunger strike and come back so that we can work together for the larger objective of improving the healthcare system in the state,” Pant said.

The senior doctors, however, said they were disappointed with the meeting’s outcome.

Subarna Goswami, who attended the talks as a representative of the Joint Doctors’ Platform, described the meeting as futile.

“We came here in response to the government’s call hoping to help resolve the impasse and end the hunger strike by junior doctors, whose health parameters are extremely worrying. Three of them have to be admitted to hospital,” Goswami said on Monday afternoon.

A fourth fasting doctor was admitted to hospital on Monday evening as his condition worsened.

“The chief secretary and the home secretary only gave us verbal assurances. We had asked for a timeline regarding the students’ union elections, recognition of residents’ doctors associations and investigation of the deep-rooted corruption in the West Bengal Medical Council and the West Bengal Health Recruitment Board. They did not commit themselves to any timeline,” said Goswami.

Biplab Chandra, the secretary of the Medical Service Centre, said after the meeting that they asked the chief secretary and the home secretary “whether the state government was waiting for adeath to happen before deciding to take steps against corruption at medical colleges and other hospitals across the state”.

“We are irritated and disappointed. We told the chief secretary and the home secretary about the widespread corruption at every medical college and hospital acrossthe state. We also told them that police are harassing the junior doctors in every way possible. We also invited them to the carnival of protest(Droher Carnival),” said Chandra.

Debashis Halder, one of the protesting junior doctors, said the government was making false claims.

“The claim that seven of our 10 demands have been met is a complete lie. Yes, some pilot projects will be run, such as the central referral system and the bed monitoringsystem in South 24-Parganas and Diamond Harbour. We want this to happen across the state and not in one or two places. We don’t know why the state government cannot give a timeline in regard to students’ union elections and recruitment of doctors, nurses and other healthcareprofessionals at medicalcolleges across the state,” Halder said.