Stern action to be taken on attacks: Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: The junior doctors and interns at all government-run medical colleges and hospitals in West Bengal withdrew their week-long statewide ceasework on Monday evening after their delegation of 31 members met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna, the state secretariat, amid a live broadcast by the media which turned out to be successful.

They also expressed gratitude to the CM for finding a way out. The breakthrough came after Ms Banerjee announced stern action would be taken into the attacks on them while giving a patient hearing to their demands, grievances and suggestions in the presence top bureaucrats and police and health officials.

To prevent any repetition of attacks by patients' families, she then listed 10 security steps for the safety of doctors. These measures include the creation of an interface between doctors and patients to take the pressure off the doctors, the use of alarm bells, posting of a senior police officer at each hospital and streamlining the entry of patients' attendants in the emergency departments.

Ms Banerjee later met Dr Paribaha Mukherjee, the injured junior doctor of NRS, undergoing treatment after the attack which started the strike and spoke to him for around 15 minutes.

Earlier, healthcare services were severely affected across the country on Monday as doctors wearing helmets and forming human chains went on a strike in solidarity with their protesting colleagues in West Bengal.

Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that the government will “revisit” the issue of drafting a central law regarding the safety of medicos at healthcare facilities.

Patients and their relatives, caught unaware of the strike, were seen waiting outside various hospitals, appealing to authorities for help as out-patient departments remained closed and surgeries postponed.