KOLKATA: The ‘fast-unto-death’ by junior doctors in West Bengal to press for their demands in the wake of the RG Kar hospital incident entered the 10th day on Monday, even as another medic was admitted to hospital after his health condition deteriorated, officials said.
Pulastha Acharya of the NRS Medical College and Hospital was taken to hospital on Sunday night after he complained of severe stomach pain, they said.
Three of the junior medics who were on hunger strike in Kolkata and Siliguri city in the northern part of the state were earlier hospitalised in view of their health condition.
“Pulastha is in the CCU and his parameters have deteriorated. We have formed a medical board to treat him,” a senior doctor of the NRS Medical College and Hospital told PTI.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Manoj Pant had on Sunday written to the Joint Platform of Doctors (JPD), urging them to call off their proposed demonstration on October 15, stating that the stir was coinciding with the state government’s annual ‘Durga Pujo Carnival’ to be organised on the same day.
He also invited them for a meeting at state health department headquarters – Swasthya Bhawan – on Monday to discuss their demands.
In an email, Pant also urged the JPD to “advise” the junior doctors to end their hunger strike in the interest of their health and well-being.
The JPD, in a statement on Monday, expressed “profound disappointment” over the state government’s decision to proceed with the carnival, “while doctors and citizens are on the streets demanding justice and a safer healthcare system”.
“Junior doctors have been on hunger strike for 10 days, with three of them now in the ICU, yet the government prioritises celebrations over addressing these grave concerns,” it said.
“We do not seek to cancel the government’s carnival, respecting the constitutional right to celebrate. Equally, we assert our right to peaceful, democratic protest without disrupting the festivities. It is disheartening that the government has asked us to withdraw the call of ‘Droher Carnival’ (demonstration) on October 15, which was intended to show solidarity with the agitating junior doctors,” the statement said.
The junior doctors have been demanding justice for the RG Kar hospital victim, immediate removal of Health Secretary N S Nigam, workplace security and other measures.
The other demands include the establishment of a centralised referral system for all hospitals and medical colleges in the state, the implementation of a bed vacancy monitoring system, and formation of task forces to ensure essential provisions for CCTV, on-call rooms, and washrooms at their workplaces.
The hunger strike from October 5 followed nearly 50 days of ‘cease work’ in two phases. Their agitation began after an on-duty postgraduate trainee was raped and murdered inside state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.