Minutes after chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with junior doctors ended, she asked senior officials to start work to implement her promises, saying the youngsters had raised some valid issues.
“After the meeting was over, the chief minister said many of the points raised by the junior doctors were legitimate. She agreed to those points and wants the government to start work to address the issues,” a government official said.
The chief minister, sources said, told the officials that she would check on a regular basis on whether the promises were being implemented.
“She seems to be serious on delivering on her promises in time, especially on intensifying security for the doctors… The chief minister made it clear that issues related to development of infrastructure at the hospitals might take some time but plugging the loopholes of security arrangements can be done relatively quicker,” another official present at the meeting said.
Mamata made her intention clear when she agreed to give minutes of the meeting to the junior doctors. Towards the end of the meeting, she told the junior doctors to wait for a while so her office could hand over the minutes to them following requests from the doctors.
Initially, Mamata had asked two junior doctors to join a team of officials that would prepare the minutes. But the doctors said all of them would wait in the conference room till the documents were ready.
“The chief minister agreed and offered the doctors tea and snacks…. That marked a happy end to a tense week,” the official said.
The beginning of the meeting, however, was not that smooth.
At the last minute, the protesting junior doctors demanded that the media be allowed to telecast the meeting live, to which the government had reservations. “But the chief minister agreed to the demand and allowed two TV channels in the conference hall on the 14th floor of Nabanna,” the official said.
The doctors had to wait for a few minutes before the meeting as the chief minister had another engagement. “They waited patiently…. When the meeting finally began the chief minister took it upon herself to make the doctors feel comfortable by allowing them to speak without any hesitation,” another official present in the conference room said.
Sources said the chief minister herself monitored the drafting of the minutes soon after the meeting was over to ensure the papers were ready in an hour.
“Usually it takes a day or two to prepare the minutes of a meeting. But in this case it had to be done within 40 minutes because of the chief minister’s order. Preparing the minutes means the chief minister’s promises were documented,” a source in Mamata’s office said.
The chief minister’s eagerness to deliver on her promises would put pressure on the departments concerned to complete work on time. “Usually, the departments work on a deadline to complete a project. In this case they will be under pressure to finish work at the earliest,” a source said.
The chief minister said several equipment were lying unused at various hospitals and asked the authorities to make good use of them. Sources said that would involve a series of initiatives.
First, a list of unused equipment has to be drawn up. The health department will decide whether the hospitals concerned have the required infrastructure to use the equipment. If the hospitals have the infrastructure, the department will have to deploy a technician to run them.
“This cannot be done overnight…. It takes a few months. So, the health department will have to work really fast to get things done,” said a source.
According to Nabanna officials, the government was focussing on implementing the security-related promises within a short period to earn confidence of the junior doctors. “Installing collapsible gates in the emergency department, public address system or a mechanism to draw attention of the police by the doctors would not be a real trouble. Once these are installed, the government will be able to earn confidence of the doctors. It will help the government run the healthcare system,” an official said.
