The junior doctors’ front has withdrawn its call for a “pen-down” programme on Tuesday that would have affected patient services at both government and private hospitals across the state.

The striking medics said some senior doctors had advised against another shutdown of all services, except emergency services, in the middle of their long cease-work since the August 9 rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee at RG Kar.

The senior doctors had also cautioned that such a step might put them on the wrong foot ahead of Thursday’s Supreme Court hearing.

A pen-down would have entailed even senior doctors withdrawing from all non-emergency services for a day.

“We have withdrawn the call for a pen-down programme on Tuesday,” said Aniket Mahato, a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar.

He said two other programmes — a march to Lalbazar on Monday and a call for people to switch off their lights and light candles for an hour on Wednesday night — would go ahead as scheduled.

While Bengal’s junior doctors — who number between 8,000 and 10,000 — worked at the emergency departments on August 9 and 10, they extended their cease-work
also to emergency duties from August 11.

Health department officials have said that at least seven people, including a newborn girl, died after failing to receive treatment at government hospitals affected by the junior doctors’ cease-work, The Telegraph had reported on Sunday.

The department had “verified” each of the seven deaths and the circumstances in which it happened, an official said.

According to the state health department, at least 5,000 scheduled surgeries had been cancelled across the state’s 26 government medical college hospitals because of the ongoing cease-work.

Several senior doctors told this newspaper that it was prudent not to go ahead with the pen-down protest because the long absence of junior doctors from OPDs and indoor patient services had severely affected services at government teaching hospitals.

A faculty member at the paediatric department of a medical college said the department had about 45 junior doctors and only 16 faculty members. The entire department is now being run by the faculty, some of whom are elderly.

A junior doctor said some of their seniors felt that if all doctors withdrew from all non-emergency services on Tuesday, it might go against the doctors when the Supreme Court heard the RG Kar case on Thursday.

“This is a prudent decision, because I cannot deny that patient services have been hit in the absence of junior doctors. Their number is so large that their absence is bound to impact services,” a faculty member at a government medical college in Calcutta said.

The faculty member said that some of the ageing professors were finding it tough to run around and devote the necessary time to every critical patient. Usually, the professors advise the junior doctors, who monitor critical patients round the clock.

A senior consultant with a private hospital in south Calcutta said he supported the protest and wanted it to continue, but the junior doctors also needed to introspect on how to carry the agitation forward.

“It has been a long cease-work. I think the protests should continue, but the junior doctors should return to work to the extent possible,” the consultant said.

“The protest is for a just cause and must go on, but patient services cannot be impacted further.”

A postgraduate trainee at RG Kar said he was personally against a pen-down.

“We are ourselves organising the telemedicine and physical clinics to reach out to patients. Then why this pen-down call? The front has now withdrawn the call for a pen-down on Tuesday,” the doctor said.

Junior doctors held a telemedicine clinic at RG Kar on Sunday. They will carry on with the clinic till the end of their cease-work, with junior doctors from all medical colleges participating by rotation.

On Sunday, junior doctors held physical outreach clinics at seven places across Calcutta, including sites at Esplanade and Kumartuli, outside the Academy of Fine Arts and at the Jadavpur 8B bus terminus. Junior doctors from seven medical colleges set up these camps. “We treated about 3,000 patients.... but the situation is not safe for us to resume work,” a junior doctor said.

All the prescriptions from the telemedicine clinics — sent via WhatsApp — and outreach clinics had “Abhaya Clinic” written at the top. All the patients were also given a printed piece of paper with the demands of the doctors listed there.

The chit requested everyone to switch off the lights at their homes between 9pm and 10pm on Wednesday and light candles outside on the roads.