Mamata Banerjee to visit injured doctor, strikers to boycott meet with CM

The doctors have sought an unconditional apology from Mamata Banerjee for the attack on their colleagues.

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to visit private hospital Saturday afternoon to see a young doctor who is recuperating after an attack at the NRS hospital which sparked a widespread strike by junior doctors which began on Tuesday.

Junior doctors at NRS Medical College and Hospital demonstrate against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata. (ANI)

However, there is no official confirmation about the visit. The doctor, Paribaha Mukherjee, who was attacked by relatives of a patient who died Monday evening at the NRS hospital, had suffered head injuries. He was admitted to a private hospital – Institute of Neurosciences Kolkata in the city’s Mallik Bazar area. He has since recovered and is now said to be stable, sources said. Another doctor had also been attacked along with Mukherjee.

Striking junior doctors have turned down Mamata Banerjee’s invitation for a meeting at the state secretariat, which was called to resolve the impasse, and continued their protest for the fifth consecutive day on Saturday.

The junior doctors issued a statement after a general body meeting early afternoon saying they will not attend the meeting with the chief minister at the state secretariat at 5 pm.

“We don’t want a few representatives of ours to hold a meeting behind closed doors,” doctors at NRS Hospital said in a statement.

The general body meeting was held after a meeting with the president of the IMA at NRS Medical College and Hospital on Saturday morning.

The doctors have sought unconditional apology from Banerjee and set six conditions for the state government to withdraw the stir.

The stir has spread beyond Bengal across 17 states and Union Territories and involved about 100,000 doctors across India, according to reports from various medical associations

Resident doctors of All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) and Safdarjung Hospital, who boycotted work on Friday have given a 48-hour ultimatum to Banerjee to meet the demands of the state’s agitating doctors, failing which they said they would begin an indefinite strike.