West Bengal doctors call off strike

Kolkata: The protesting doctors in West Bengal on Monday agreed to withdraw their week-long stir after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced steps to scale up security at hospitals.

An assurance to call off the strike came at a meeting Banerjee held with representatives of the striking doctors at the State Secretariat. “We are satisfied with the meeting,” a representative of the doctors said, assuring Banerjee that the strike would be called off. A formal announcement on withdrawal of the strike is likely to be made from the epicentre of the protest, the NRS Medical College and Hospital.

Meanwhile, healthcare services were severely affected across the country as doctors wearing helmets and forming human chains went on a strike in solidarity with their protesting colleagues in West Bengal. A large number of patients and their relatives, caught unaware of the strike, were seen waiting



outside various hospitals, appealing to authorities for help. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has given the nationwide call to withdraw non-emergency healthcare services after junior doctors in West Bengal went on a strike against a brutal attack on their colleagues by the relatives of a patient who died during treatment.

In many government and private hospitals across the country, out-patient departments (OPD) remained closed and scheduled surgeries were postponed. However, emergency services remained operational.

“Those patients or their relatives who take the law into their hands should be strictly dealt with. While we understand the pain of the doctors, is it justified that patients who travel hundreds of kilometres to get treatment at the PGI suffer like this?” asked an elderly patient visiting the OPD at the PGIMER in Chandigarh.