Medical impasse reaches new height as over 500 docs resign across Bengal

Kolkata: More than 500 doctors in the state have tendered their resignation at different hospitals on Friday, even when the emergency ward at NRS Medical College and Hospital functioned normally from the morning. The number of doctors resigning is rising, with more and more doctors extending solidarity to the agitation of junior doctors in the state.

All the medical college hospitals in the city witnessed mass resignations from doctors throughout the day. As per sources, the number of doctors who have resigned at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital is over 100, while that in SSKM and NRS is 175 and 108 respectively.

The number of doctors resigning at Calcutta Medical College stands at 110. The National Medical College hospital has seen 35 resignations, whereas North Bengal Medical College also saw more than 100 doctors resigning. The doctors who have resigned belong to different disciplines.

The development comes a day after NRS Medical College and Hospital principal professor Saibal Mukherjee and Medical Superintendent and Vice Principal Sourav Chatterjee tendered their resignation. 67 doctors at Suri Hospital in Birbhum district and 18 doctors at Sagar Dutta Medical College and Hospital had also tendered their mass resignation on Thursday.

Meanwhile, intellectuals in the city also expressed solidarity with the junior doctors and took part in a rally organised by Joint Doctors' Forum on Friday afternoon. Actor and director Aparna Sen, director Kamaleshwar Mukherjee and singer Anupam Roy were seen taking part in the march from NRS Hospital to Park Street, where they demanded security for the doctors.

"Dear Chief Minister, you are our guardian. You are like our mother. You are senior to these young doctors. Please take care of them," Sen said, after visiting the agitating doctors at NRS Medical College and Hospital earlier in the day.

"Yes, the minister of state came here. But you (Mamata Banerjee) are the Health minister. They want to speak to you. So please come and talk to them," she added.

Actor Koushik Sen, social activist Bolan Ganguly and theatre personality Bivas Chakraborty also went to the hospital.

Meanwhile, Dr Kunal Saha filed a petition before the division bench of the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, seeking the court's direction to end the present crisis.

The junior doctors said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will have to come to NRS and listen to their grievances and will also have to pay a visit to Paribaha Mukhopadhyay, the NRS intern who is presently undergoing treatment at a private hospital at Mallickbazar in Park Street.

They claimed that Banerjee has to seek unconditional apology for her statements on Thursday, where she had said that outsiders were involved in their ceasework movement.

The junior doctors at NRS went on a strike on Tuesday, demanding security at OPD and emergency wards, a day after the family members of a patient allegedly attacked two interns. The agitation of

the doctors subsequently spread to all medical colleges in the state.