Kolkata Rape-Murder: Junior Doctors Demand Another Meet with CM Mamata; To Continue Strike

Kolkata: A day after the Bengal government appointed Manoj Kumar Verma as the new Kolkata Police chief and removed two senior health department officials, junior doctors protesting the RG Kar hospital rape-murder announced they would continue their sit-in and not return to work. The West Bengal Junior Doctors Front sent another email to the Chief Secretary, requesting a follow-up meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee , as some of their key demands remain unresolved.

During a late-night meeting, the doctors described the state's actions as a "partial victory" but insisted that more needed to be done. They continue to call for the removal of state health secretary NS Nigam and stressed that certain issues discussed in their previous meeting with the Chief Minister were not fully addressed.

In their email, the doctors emphasized the unresolved points: "In reference to our last meeting with our Hon’ble CM, we would like to reiterate there were certain key points regarding our five-point demands which were left unresolved. Particularly our 4th and 5th points, concerning the development of the healthcare system, safety, security, and the prevailing threat culture. We were assured in the meeting that a special task force presided by you would be formed to address these issues, and further discussions with us would take place regarding its formulation and function. We would like to sit in a meeting with you and the other members of the task force today regarding the same. We are eagerly waiting for your positive response."

CM Banerjee's previous decision to remove Vineet Goyal as Kolkata Police chief followed a long discussion with the doctors about his handling of the rape and murder case of a female doctor at RG Kar hospital last month.

The agitating doctors also want discussions about the safety of doctors in hospitals and how the government plans to use the Rs 100 crore allocated for improving safety in state-run hospitals. They believe that effective security measures require a complete overhaul of the public healthcare system, including better appointment of health workers, fighting corruption, and ensuring essential drugs are available.

“No effective security measures can be implemented in hospitals without a thorough overhaul of public healthcare delivery mechanism including streamlining of the referral system, the appointment of health workers and professional patient counsellors, plugging of admission corruption and ensuring availability of life-saving drugs," the statement read.

They are also calling for the immediate formation of a task force led by the chief secretary to address issues in medical colleges, as promised by Banerjee. They want student body elections held and more junior doctors included in top policy-making bodies.

Earlier, the state government appointed Verma as the new city police commissioner, replacing Goyal, and removed Director of Health Services (DHS) Debashis Halder, Director of Medical Education (DME) Kaustav Nayak, and Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata Police's North Division Abhishek Gupta. Swapan Soren was named interim DHS, but no new DME was announced.