Doctors to meet Mamata Banerjee today, breakthrough possible

Kolkata: Buckling under public pressure due to patients’ continued suffering on the sixth day of their statewide agitation, junior doctors and interns of West Bengal government medical colleges and hospitals softened their stand on Sunday afternoon and agreed for immediate talks with chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Following the doctors’ fresh proposal, the chief minister decided to call the protesters for a meeting on Monday.

The agitating doctors, however, set three conditions —  talks should be held at an open forum, have the presence of representatives of all 14 medical colleges and media should also be allowed to cover the proceedings. Ms Banerjee had on Saturday invited the agitators for closed-door talks, but the offer was turned down by them.

Services continued to remain affected for the sixth day on Sunday in emergency wards, outdoor facilities and pathological units of many state-run hospitals and private
medical facilities in the state, leaving several patients in the lurch.

According to sources, Ms Banerjee has called representatives of agitating doctors for a meeting at Nabanna, the state secretariat, on Monday afternoon. The state health department has suggested that one representative from each of the 14 medical colleges be allowed at the meeting but media should be kept away, sources revealed.

The agitating junior doctors’ U-turn on talks came at a meeting at Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital (NRSMCH) a day after Ms Banerjee announced that she had accepted all their demands. The protesters had earlier demanded an apology from the chief minister and asked her to visit NRSMCH.

At around 4.30 pm on Sunday, junior doctors’ forum “Save The Saviours’ said, “The last press interview by the chief minister on Saturday was full of discrepancies which have led to false propagation of the motto behind our protest and to the response of the government to it, and hence needs clarification. We want immediate end to this impasse by discussion with the chief minister which, to maintain transparency, should not be held behind closed doors but should be open to the media under camera coverage.”

It elaborated, “We leave the decision to choose the venue of such discussion with our representatives to the CM, but it should accommodate representatives of all medical colleges of West Bengal in sufficient numbers and the media. We want to resume our duties as early as possible in the best interest of the common people once all our demands are logically addressed and met adequately through discussion.”

The statement added, Doctors agree to meet Mamata but in the open “We are hopeful that our CM will be considerate enough to solve the problems that our entire state is facing in healthcare sector currently.”

On the three conditions to Ms Banerjee, Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP and Indian Medical Association president Santanu Sen said, “A constitutional head has to be given due honour although such incidents are condemned. We have to go through a discipline. It is not decent to set conditions before a constitutional head.”

Junior doctors across the state are observing a strike in protest against an assault on two of their colleagues at the NRS, allegedly by the family members of a patient who died on Monday night.