Kolkata rape-murder case: Doctors end strike after SC appeal

New Delhi: Following an appeal from the Supreme Court, majority of protesting doctors on Thursday announced calling off their 11-day strike and resumed duties in hospitals where OPD, elective surgeries and diagnostic services had been adversely affected in the last two weeks.

The medicos who agreed to call off their strikes include resident doctors at Delhi-based AIIMS, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College and PGI, Chandigarh.

FAIMA, an umbrella association of resident doctors, also announced withdrawing the strike, seeking justice for a 31-year-old female doctor, who was brutally raped and murdered at R G Kar Medical College in Kolkata.

“The Supreme Court gave direction and formed a task force. We appreciate this and hope there will be justice in the RG Kar incident. We will resume our duties at the earliest,” said Indra Sekhar Prasad, president of the Resident Doctors’ Association at AIIMS, Delhi.

During the agitation, the doctors held meetings with top officials in the Union Health Ministry and also held roadside OPD consultations as a means of protest.

“The withdrawal comes in response to the appeal and direction of the Supreme Court,” the AIIMS RDA said in a statement, urging the authorities to strictly adhere to the directives issued by the top court.

Resident doctors across the country hit the street following the gruesome crime at the Kolkata hospital earlier this month. Their protests intensified after a mob stormed the RG Kar Hospital at night a few days after the incident and destroyed several departments and a medicine store.

The Supreme Court that took suo motu cognisance of the crime flagged the problems that resident doctors and interns face in government hospitals.

As per the top court’s instruction, a National Task Force has now been formed to look into the grievances of the doctors and suggest steps to improve the infrastructure and security in hospitals.

The apex court also asked the Union Health Secretary to talk to the states to put in place “certain basic minimum requirements” to assuage the safety concern of junior doctors.