New Delhi: The Indian Medical Association has announced a 24-hour nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency services from 6 am on August 17 to protest against the alleged rape and murder of a trainee woman doctor at the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata and the subsequent vandalism at the facility.
Essential services will be maintained and casualty wards operational, the medical body said in a statement issued late on Thursday night. Out-patient departments (OPD) will not function and elective surgeries will not be conducted. The withdrawal is across all sectors wherever modern medicine doctors are providing services, the IMA said.
“Subsequent to the brutal crime in R G Kar Medical College, Kolkata, and the hooliganism unleashed on the protesting students on the eve of Independence Day (Wednesday night), the Indian Medical Association declares nationwide withdrawal of services by doctors of modern medicine from 6 am on Saturday August 17, 2024 to 6 am Sunday August 18, 2024 for 24 hours,” the statement said.
“Doctors, especially women, are vulnerable to violence because of the nature of the profession. It is for authorities to provide for the safety of doctors inside hospitals and campuses. Both physical assaults and crimes are a result of indifference and insensitivity of the authorities concerned to the needs of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers,” it said.
The call for the nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency medical services was taken after a meeting with state branches of the IMA. The IMA on Thursday condemned the vandalism at the Kolkata hospital where doctors have been protesting since August 9 evening following the alleged rape and murder of the woman medic.