A section of doctors at RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences in Mukundapur stopped performing “non-emergency services” from Thursday in solidarity with the protesting junior doctors who have been demanding an overhaul of the existing healthcare system.

Several medics at Manipal Hospital’s Dhakuria unit said they, too, would do the same from Monday, October 14.

Doctors of a few other private hospitals told their management they propose to stop attending “non-emergency services” from Monday in support of the cause of the protesting doctors.

In a letter to the facility director, senior doctors at RN Tagore hospital said “..we are stopping non-emergency services from today, 10th October, 11 am onwards until 14th October. This could be extended further depending on the course and progress of the movement.”

In a separate letter addressed to the medical superintendent of Manipal Hospitals in Dhakura, the doctors said their decision was taken against the backdrop of the protest by junior doctors.

“Non-emergency means elective. We will not attend to a patient who is, say, scheduled to turn up with reports for a health check or perform a surgery which is can be delayed,” said a senior doctor of the Manipal Hospitals in Dhakura.

Seven junior doctors from different medical colleges and hospitals have been on a
fast till death at Esplanade since Saturday evening as a part of the protest by the medics who have demanded fixing the gaps in the state healthcare system.

“We respect doctors’ sentiments and will always support them. Our outpatient services will be open for patients on October 14 and 15,” R. Venkatesh, group COO, Narayana Health that runs RN Tagore hospital.

Over 55 senior consultants of Manipal Hospitals Dhakuria have said in the letter that they were “not in a mental state to continue working in this difficult and unprecedented situation” and have “unanimously decided to stop all non-emergency work from 10am on Monday until the government decides on an amicable solution”.

The letter to the medical superintendent of the Dhakuria unit says “...junior doctors are on hunger strike for 10 very justified reasons....”

The consultants said in the letter that “under these stressful conditions” their judgements “may be clouded and hence they might make mistakes and “put the health of our patients at risk”.

“The primary reason for not performing non-emergency services is the fast-unto-death programme by the junior doctors and the state government’s apathy in addressing the concerns flagged by them,” said Chanchal Goswami, a senior oncologist with the Dhakuria unit of Manipal Hospitals.

On Wednesday, a group of doctors from Apollo Multispeciality Hospital wrote
to the hospital management saying they would not undertake non-emergency clinical work beginning Monday, October 14.

The move was “in solidarity with the hunger strike”, they said.

Junior doctors said their movement is not just about installing CCTV cameras. “We are seeking greater reforms in the government healthcare system,” said Asfakulla Naiya, a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar and one of the faces of the protest.