KOLKATA: The crisis over the strike by junior doctors at 13 state-run medical colleges and hospitals worsened on Friday as hundreds of doctors including senior doctors and professors, tendered mass resignations.
97 doctors from the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital tendered mass resignation and came out of the healthcare unit, leaving hundreds of patients admitted unattended.
The principal and the medical superintendent of the NRS Medical College and Hospital, the epicentre of the protests, submitted their resignations on Thursday night.
The development came a day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited SSKM Hospital, where she warned the striking junior doctors of strict action if they did not resume work within the deadline that she had set.
"It was a unanimous decision to tender our resignation following our chief minister’s indifferent attitude towards law and order situation in healthcare services. She made us a scapegoat in front of the people. We are demanding her unconditional apology,’’ said a senior doctor of the R.G. Kar Hospital who tendered his resignation, in solidarity with the protesting junior doctors at NRS.
Meanwhile, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has announced a nationwide doctors' strike on 17 June and said that no essential medical services should be provided and that non-violent protests would continue.
Media reports state that 175 senior doctors of Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research and Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital (IPGMER SSKM Hospital), have resigned as well. 17 doctors of Medicine Department of Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital have handed in their resignation.
According to Firspost, senior doctors from North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri and 33 faculty members of Calcutta School Of Tropical Medicine, including the Director and Medical Superintendent-cum-Vice Principal stepped down.
In North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, 14 doctors, including a head of the department, tendered resignation. Similarly, 16 doctors at National Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata tendered their resignation on Friday.
Meanwhile, film directors Aparna Sen and Kaushik Sen, and singer Debojyoti Mishra visited NRS Medical College and Hospital, where the alleged assault on junior doctors took place on Monday night, on Friday and requested chief minister Mamata Banerjee to visit the hospital and talk to the striking doctors.
Four-day long stir
The protest began at the state-run NRS Hospital on Tuesday morning bringing the regular services to a standstill, after a junior doctor was allegedly beaten up by the kin of a 75-year-old patient who died there late on Monday night.
The family members of the deceased patient alleged medical negligence. An intern named Paribaha Mukherjee sustained a serious skull injury in the attack and was admitted in the intensive care unit of the Institute of Neurosciences.
With improvement in his condition, Mukherjee has been shifted to the general bed and will be released from the hospital soon.
(With inputs from online desk and agencies)