Government hospitals across India braced themselves for an indefinite strike called by sections of doctors and postgraduate medical students and set to start on Tuesday amid anger over the rape and murder of a doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

A nationwide body of postgraduate medical students, demanding a CBI probe into the crime and legislation to protect doctors and other healthcare workers from violence, has called for “an indefinite shutdown” of all elective medical services starting Tuesday.

“Emergency services will not be affected,” the Federation of the All India Medical Association (FAIMA) said in its statement on Monday.

AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi released circulars on Monday, announcing curtailed services. AIIMS has decided to stop all elective admissions and continue with only emergency admissions until the strike is called off. Safdarjung Hospital has decided to curtail elective admissions. Both hospitals have announced restrictions on outpatient consultations

“We had representatives from some 45 government medical colleges from across the country at an emergency meeting on Sunday night, during which we decided to escalate our protests to an indefinite strike,” FAIMA’s national chairman Rohan Krishnan said.

Resident doctors’ associations from Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, among other states, have decided to join the strike.

“We did not want to call for an indefinite strike — but we’ve been pushed into it,” said Manish Jangra, an advisor to FAIMA, which has also demanded the “resignation of all authorities” responsible for the failure to protect the life of an on-duty doctor at RG Kar medical college.

FAIMA executives have said the information they have obtained from discussions with their fellow doctors at RG Kar point to early attempts by police and college authorities to “cover up the incident.”

“Faith in the local police is lost — that is why we’re seeking a CBI probe,” Krishnan said.

The medics have also demanded the “immediate implementation” of a central legislation that would serve as a deterrent to violence against doctors and other healthcare workers.

Faculty members also flagged concerns about
the lack of dignified work space for women doctors. “In AIIMS and in other government hospitals, there are no separate rooms for female residents,” an AIIMS faculty member said.

IMA

The Indian Medical Association, the country’s largest body of doctors, on Monday asked the Centre to declare all hospitals as “safe zones” through appropriate regulatory and security measures, akin to the protection provided to all airports.