The junior doctors are set to meet West Bengal chief secretary Manoj Pant on Wednesday at 6 pm to discuss the development of safety and security in state-run hospitals and the ‘threat culture’ prevalent in the state-run hospitals.
According to the doctors, these are the fourth and fifth demands of their five point demand and are left unresolved despite the meeting with the chief minister on Monday.
The junior doctors wrote to the chief secretary at 11.20 am on Wednesday asking for time with the chief secretary. The chief secretary wrote back at 2.50 pm asking them to come to Nabanna, state administrative headquarters.
The meeting will be attended by the 30-member delegation of the junior doctors and the chief secretary and members of the task force that has been set up by the chief minister to address the doctors’ concerns.
The chief secretary also reminded protesting junior doctors to return back to work considering the larger public interest.
The Telegraph Online spoke to a few of the junior doctors who were at the protest outside Swasthya Bhavan, the state health department headquarters. What emerged was that the doctors would continue their protests, till the government acted on the key unresolved issues of their five point demands.
TTO Graphics
“We have stated that we wish to sit with the task force. Our fifth demand was the abolishment of threat culture; we also want to talk about this with the task force. Until and unless these demands are met we will sit in protest outside Swasthya bhawan.” Dr Diptajit Majumdar, house staff at RG Kar Medical College, told The Telegraph Online.
The doctors said that development of the healthcare system and improving security measures in hospitals need immediate attention.
Dr Sayan Mandal. (Nancy Jaiswal)
“Amongst our demands the 4th and 5th demands were also crucial. In all the government colleges of Bengal there are serious security issues which we want to be addressed. Proper restrooms, common rooms, and washrooms are basic necessities which we want,” said Dr Sayan Mandal, an intern at the Midnapore medical college, to The Telegraph Online. “Threat culture is also a pertinent issue which we want to end, for instance there have been cases, where a junior is threatened to do work under the influence. We even wish to end the political dominance in colleges. A democratic student union with a leader should be selected in near future”.
The junior doctors’ forum also sought details about the progress of the chief secretary-led task force and what are the specific steps to address the ongoing safety concerns in hospitals.
“In yesterday’s pan GB meeting, representatives from all government medical colleges came including the dental colleges. It started around 7:30 pm and continued till 1 am. We also spoke about how we can continue our movement as to in which form where students from different colleges put forward their opinion. As of now, we want to wait for a few days and see what implementation happens after that we will take our next call.” Dr Sk Mehebub Hossain, junior resident doctor, Calcutta Medical College & Hospital, who was present in the meeting on Tuesday told The Telegraph Online.
