Junior doctors partially resumed work in government hospitals in West Bengal on Saturday morning after 42 days of protests following the rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital (RGKMCH) in Kolkata on August 9. They have returned to only emergency duties and not in-patient or out-patientdepartments.
A protesting postgraduate female trainee doctor at Medical College, Kolkata, Dr. Gauri Seth, who completed 24 hours of Emergency duty on Saturday morning, said that going back to work was filled with mixed feelings and that she felt dissociated for the first few hours since she returned to work after 42 days. She told The Hindu, “We were all women on duty last night (Friday, September 20), we were all a little uncomfortable though we were not vocal about it. My seniors kept telling me not to get out of the room if I felt threatened.”
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Dr. Seth said the doctors are now looking out for each other more than before since they have not yet recovered from the trauma of losing their peer at RGKMCH to rape and murder.
“Only essential services have resumed. These services differ for each department. All departments have been instructed to produce an SOP (standard operating procedure) for work until all the services resume,” said Dr. Hassan Mustaq, a postgraduate doctor from RGKMCH.
Kolkata, West Bengal, Junior doctors in West Bengal government hospitals resume emergency duties after 42 days of strike and protests asking for justice for their brutaly killed colleague. Photo DEBASISH BHADURI | Photo Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI
Senior doctors, who supported the junior resident doctors’ movement for the past five weeks, said the juniors are slowly returning to work. Dr. Tapas Pramanick, a medical officer at RGKMCH who took up additional work for the past 42 days to support his protesting juniors, said, “Doctors want to work and see patients. If they are sitting on the road in protest, it is only because we have our backs against the wall and have no option but to fight.”
Dr. Pramanick, who has been vocal about the alleged wrongdoings at the RGKMCH, also spoke on the threat culture at the institute. He said, “Whoever worked in this hospital has been a victim of threats, including me. We doctors have nowhere to turn to. We cannot trust the police anymore; they did not save us when the mob attacked us. Now that we all resume duties, we are not sure who will protect us if something happens [to us hereafter].”
Increasing footfall
Patients flocked in huge numbers to the emergency, trauma, and OPD buildings of the RGKMCH as the hospital and its doctors picked up the pieces from the aftermath of the rape and murder.
Rahman Ali Mushtaq, a patient who came to visit the orthopaedic outpatient department (OPD) at RGKMCH after almost 50 days, said, “I was waiting to visit a doctor. But due to the cease-work protests, I couldn’t come. I saw in the news that doctors have resumed work, so I have come now.”
Resident doctors from the government medical colleges have also started Abhaya Clinics in the flood-affected areas of West Bengal, where they are giving medical advice for free. They also distribute food, water, and other essential items, which they received from civil societies, to the flood-affected people.
At an Abhaya Clinic set up at Keshpur in Paschim Medinipur district, a severely flood-affected area, more than 30 junior doctors attended to patients. They wrote prescriptions in specially printed prescription pads which read, “We want justice for RG Kar”.
In the meantime, the slogans and graffiti on the roads in front of Swastha Bhawan, headquarters of the State Health Department, where the doctors held a 10-day long sit-in demonstration, were being removed. Fresh coatings of colour have been given to the streets and walls to cover the remains of the protest. The protesting doctors said, “They can remove our slogans from the roads and walls, but they will never be able to remove the cause from our hearts.”
Published - September 21, 2024 02:02 pm IST
