Doctors and medical students staged a protest at Nair Hospital in Mumbai on Tuesday in the wake of Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) calling for a nationwide shutdown of OPD services as a stir against the sexual assault and murder of a woman post-graduate trainee (PGT) doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
BMC MARD General Secretary Dr Akshay Dongardive said, “The woman doctor was on duty when she was raped. Post–mortem said that blood was oozing from her private parts. This is a major rape-murder case after the Nirbhaya incident. It puts us all to shame. We have joined in the nationwide protest. All resident doctors across all government hospitals in Maharashtra are observing suspension of services today. Emergency services are still operational, patients are not facing any issues.”
He further said that there should be a Central Protection Act for doctors.
“We demand justice for our sister with whom injustice has been done. We request the State Government and Centre to intervene and order a CBI inquiry at the earliest. All demands of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital doctors should be met. Nearly 40,000 doctors in Maharashtra are on strike,” he further said.
In Nagpur doctors and medical students staged a protest in front of OPD of Govt Medical College & Hospital (GMCH).
Dr Diksha Bajaj from the hospital said, “Doctors spend more time in hospitals than they do at their home. This is our second home. If we are not safe here, where will be safe? We demand our safety and nothing else. We are serving the patients but our safety is important too. If we are not safe, how will we do our work? We want justice. We will call off our strike, once we get justice.”
Patients are bearing the repercussions as FAIMA has called for a nationwide shutdown of OPD services. The Outpatient Department (OPD) at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata was shut as patients arrived for medical and health services and stood in a queue amid uncertainty over services.
A patient standing in the queue said that he had been standing there for over 2 hours.
The patient said, “have been standing here for 2 hours. We don’t know if the hospital is open. Nobody has told us anything.”
Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the Kolkata doctor rape, and murder case, saying that the CM is delaying the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry in the matter.
IMA has written to Union Minister JP Nadda demanding a detailed inquiry into the conditions enabling the crime as well as the steps to improve the safety of doctors especially women in the workplace.
“We submit to you our demand for the safe zone, defined security measures and Central Law on violence as deterrent measures. We hope you would consider our demands favourably in the light of the deteriorating ground situation,” the IMA letter reads.
The post-graduate trainee doctor was found raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.