The doctors’ protest that started in Kolkata, on Tuesday, has spread across the country. The movement received a nation-wide fillip after practitioners from premiere institutions such as AIIMS and different medical bodies lend their support.

In West Bengal, the crisis further deepened with over 500 senior doctors across State-run hospitals resigning en masse . Doctors allege that the State government has failed to give them assurance of a safe working environment.

Also read:Doctors to go on a nation-wide strike on Monday

Resident doctors, in Delhi, who had stopped work, on Friday, met Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan with a series of demands, while some senior doctors met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to resolve the crisis.

“I strongly condemn the unruly behaviour and assault against doctors. I will discuss it with the Chief Minister of West Bengal,” Union Health Minister said. Vardhan has reportedly written to Banerjee asking her to step-in and resolve the impasse.

Apart from Delhi, doctors across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Goa and Chandigarh have expressed solidarity with their counterparts in West Bengal.

Banerjee, meanwhile, maintained a stoic silence throughout the day.

During a party worker’s meet today, she reiterated her charge of “outsiders” being involved in the protest. “I had rightly said yesterday that there were outsiders involved. I have seen some outsiders raising slogans there (at the SSKM Hospital),” she said.

Assault of doctors

On the night of June 10, the death of a 75-year-old sparked-off tension at the premiere Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College & Hospital (NRS) in central Kolkata. Family members of the deceased alleged medical negligence and along with locals roughed up the interns and junior doctors on duty there. Two doctors were grievously injured with one of them receiving serious skull injuries.

This sparked-off protests by junior doctors at the NRS Medical College & Hospital, Tuesday morning onwards.

They demanded “safety at workplace” and action against the accused. Soon junior doctors across other medical colleges of the State that include the premium SSKM Hospital, amongst others, joined in. Outdoor patient department services have been stalled since Tuesday.

Medical associations like the IMA lent their support to the agitation. And, since then, the Resident Doctors Association of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Safdarjung Hospital, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, United Resident and Doctors Association of India (URDA) and Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) raised a serious call of protest by wearing white bandages on their head and accumulating in large numbers in common areas of the hospitals.

Not just medical associations, intellectuals and noted personalities like national award winning actor Aparna Sen lent their support to the agitation and urged the Chief Minister to “react sensitively” to the situation.

In fact, in a further emabarrasment to the ruling Trinamool Congress, Banerjee’s confidante and right hand man, Firhad Hakim’s daughter – Shabba - took to Facebook to support the doctor’s stir. Shabba herself is a medical student.

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