Healthcare services at several government and private hospitals across the country have been severely hampered as scores of doctors are boycotting work for a day in support of their colleagues who are on strike in West Bengal. Junior doctors in West Bengal are on strike since June 11 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 in Kolkata.
Succumbing to pressure, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called for a meeting on Monday at state secretariat Nabanna at 3 pm to meet a delegation of junior doctors. The West Bengal CM has accepted the junior doctors’ demand for an open meeting. As many as two medical representatives from 14 colleges (28 persons) will meet the chief minister to end the impasse. The meeting will also be attended by Chief Secretary, additional and principal secretary health and Director, Medical Education.
Follow live updates from the pan-India strike
# Lucknow: With over 10,000 doctors on strike, health care services in Lucknow were crippled on Monday. The resident doctors of King George’s Medical University (KGMU) and Queen Mary`s hospital, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences (RMLIMS) proceeded on strike at 6 am and will stay off work till Tuesday 6 am. Emergency and trauma services remained functional but the out-patient-department (OPD) services and elective surgeries were postponed.
# Delhi: The doctors at the Centre-run Safdarjung Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital, RML Hospital, as well as Delhi government facilities such as GTB Hospital, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital will be joining the strike. Emergency and casualty services will continue to function at these hospitals.
# Resident Doctors’ Association of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will go on strike from 12 noon today till 6 am tomorrow, in support of doctors strike over violence against them in West Bengal. Emergency services including Casualty, ICU and Labour room to be continued.
Delhi: Resident Doctors’ Association of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (#AIIMS) holds protest march against violence against doctors in West Bengal. pic.twitter.com/A2TyjiM8PO
— ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2019
# The Indian Medical Association (IMA) had given the strike call with the withdrawal of non-essential health services across the country. IMA members will also stage a dharna at its headquarters in Delhi. The apex medical body, IMA, has demanded a comprehensive central law in dealing with violence on doctors and healthcare staff. Security measures and the determinants leading to violence should also be addressed, it said in a statement. IMA has launched a four-day nationwide protest from Friday and wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah demanding enactment of the central law to check violence against healthcare workers.
# Gujarat: Doctors at Sir Sayajirao General Hospital in Vadodara hold protest outside Out Patient Department.
Gujarat: Indian Medical Association today has called for a nationwide strike of doctors in the wake of violence against doctors in West Bengal; Doctors at Sir Sayajirao General Hospital in Vadodara hold protest outside Out Patient Department pic.twitter.com/Ya6NS3CE3x
— ANI (@ANI) June 17, 2019
# Kerala: While medicos from the private sector opted for a day-long strike with just the casualty services to be made available; those in the government sector would remain off duty for two hours from all out-patient services from 8 am to 10 am. At the state-run Medical Colleges, teachers would be on strike for an hour from 10 am to 11 am. All private clinics including dental clinics have also been asked to down their shutters for the day.
Source: Zee News