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Doctors, medical staff in Assam hold protest condemning Kolkata rape & murder case
President of Junior Doctors’ Association (JDS), GMCH, Dr Tanchil said that they are protesting to ensure adequate safety and security for each doctor in the state
Junior doctors and medical staff in Assam’s Gauhati Medical College and Silchar Medical College are protesting the rape and murder of a trainee woman doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
The development comes following the Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) call on Thursday for a 24-hour nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency services.
President of Junior Doctors’ Association (JDS), GMCH, Dr Tanchil said that they are protesting to ensure adequate safety and security for each doctor in the state.
“We have adequate security measures in GMCH but doctors working in peripheral health centres are not safe. We want the government and authorities to ensure their safety at the workplace,” he told HT.
According to him, more than 600 junior doctors are protesting in GMCH.
“Right now, 500 of us are sitting here in protest and around 100 of us are supporting the authorities because we cannot let the patients suffer,” he said.
Dr Tanchil said that they’ll be sitting till 3pm on Friday as the Outpatient Department (OPD) closes after that.
Also Read: Kolkata rape & murder case: Mamata Banerjee to lead rally demanding speedy trial
In addition, junior doctors in SMCH and other medical colleges are also protesting.
President of JDA, SMCH, Salman Choudhary said that the junior doctors in their institute were facing harassment and after their recent protests, the authorities assured to address the issues.
“We submitted a 10-point letter to the authorities and asked them to strengthen the security arrangements. They have started working on it. We also demanded an apology for the controversial advisory they issued on August 12. Since they have assured to strengthen the security, we are not pushing for the apology much,” he said.
“For emergency services, we are supporting. Most of the doctors are sitting here but one part of us is on duty,” they said.
The principal of SMCH, Dr Bhaskar Gupta said that the protest by the junior doctors is not impacting the services as they have adequate faculties and other health workers.
“We respect their protest, but this will not have much impact on our services. We have asked the faculties to pay proper attention to each department,” Dr Gupta said.
A trainee doctor’s dead body, bearing multiple injuries, was found on August 9 in Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital.
