Healthcare services in West Bengal affected as doctors protest rape, murder of colleague

KOLKATA: Healthcare services took a hit across West Bengal on Saturday as doctors joined their junior colleagues in the cease work, demanding justice for the rape and murder of a medic at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Junior doctors began the stir eight days ago, and with the seniors joining in following a call by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), services at the outpatient departments of both government and private hospitals were affected.

"Our agitation will continue. This is the only way to get our demands fulfilled. How can people get inside the hospital and attack us even when the police are present? We can understand the actual motive of the vandalism," a protesting doctor said.

Non-essential healthcare services at the state-run SSKM Hospital, Sambhunath Pandit Hospital, and Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, among others, were crippled because of the agitation. Similar was the scene at the private healthcare facilities in the state.

Manipal Hospitals said routine OPD services have been closed in line with IMA's call.

"All emergency and essential services will continue and prior appointments will be rescheduled," an official of Manipal Hospitals said.

ILS Hospitals senior vice president Debashis Dhar said, "In solidarity with the IMA strike, we have suspended OPD services and elective surgeries across all our units today. ILS Hospitals fully support this cause, and while routine services are suspended, our emergency services will continue to function as usual, ensuring patients in need of urgent care receive immediate attention."

A postgraduate trainee doctor was allegedly raped and murdered while on duty at the RG Kar MCH last week. When a demonstration was underway against the gruesome incident in the early hours of August 15, a mob ransacked parts of the hospital.