New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: The country is heading for a shutdown of medical services as the Indian Medical Association has launched a three-day nationwide protest from Friday to express solidarity with the doctors agitating against the attack on their colleagues in West Bengal and called for a strike on June 17 with withdrawal of non-essential health services.
All non-essential services including OPDs will be withdrawn for 24 hours from 6 am, while emergency and causality services will continue to function. Around 3.5 lakh doctors from across the country are expected to join the protests and bandh called by the IMA.
The apex body of doctors in the country also renewed its demand for a central law to check violence against healthcare workers in hospitals and said it should have a provision for a minimum of seven-year jail sentence to violators.
The declaration came on a day when thousands of doctors from across the nation cam out in support of the protest by junion doctors in West Bengal who are demanding security for themselves in government hospitals, after two of their colleagues were attacked and seriously injured allegedly by relatives of a patient who died at the NRS Medical College and Hospital.
Over 100 doctors North Bengal Medical College & Hospital, Darjeeling tendered mass resignation in protest against the assault on doctors in the state.
Doctors at several government and private hospitals in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chandigarh and several other cities held demonstrations by boycotting work, marching and raising slogans.
A group of doctors at the national capital also met Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and apprised him about the medical fraternity's demand of ensuring safety and security of doctors in face of any violence in hospital premises. Vardhan has assured the doctors that he will look into their demands.
Harsh Vardhan urged West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to not make this sensitive matter a "prestige issue" while asking her to ensure an "amicable end" to the stir.
In a letter to Banerjee, the Union minister urged her to ensure an "amicable end" to the protests and provide a secure working environment for doctors.
He also appealed to the agitating doctors, particularly in West Bengal, to hold symbolic protests and resume work so that patients do not suffer.
"Doctors should resort to other simple and symbolic ways of protest. As medical professionals, their duty is towards protecting the rights of their patients. Strike is certainly not the best way to protest. Patients should not be deprived of immediate and emergency healthcare facilities," the Union health minister said.
The doctors, in a memorandum submitted to Vardhan, demanded a central law against hospital violence. They have sought immediate security and intervention of the Centre to stop the "politically motivated atrocity" on the protesting doctors in West Bengal.
They have also demanded recruitment of both "armed and unarmed trained competent security guards" at all government health facilities and increasing the number of security staff at hostels.
The delegation also sought making CCTV vigilance in every hospital mandatory and implementation of a hotline alarm system.
Vardhan has assured the doctors that he will look into their demands.
Doctors under the banner of the Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) held out marches in the AIIMS campus, with many wearing bandages on their foreheads while some worked wearing helmets. Resident doctors of the Safdarjung Hospital also took out protests in their campus
Agitating doctors in Kolkata demanded unconditional apology and set six conditions for the state government to withdraw their four-day-long stir that disrupted healthcare services across West Bengal.
Listing the six conditions, the agitators said the chief minister will have to visit the injured doctors at the hospital and her office should release a statement condemning the attack on them.
"We also want immediate intervention of the chief minister. Documentary evidence of judicial enquiry against the inactivity of the police to provide protection to the doctors at the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital on Monday night should also be provided," he said.
Two junior doctors were assaulted on Monday night by family members of a patient who died in the NRS Hospital.
"We demand documentary evidence and details of action taken against those who had attacked us," Dutta said.
They also demanded unconditional withdrawal of all "false cases and charges" which were imposed on junior doctors and medical students across West Bengal in the wake of their strike.
They also stressed on their demand for improvement of infrastructure in all health facilities as well as posting of armed police personnel there.