In their latest protest against reservation the students and junior medical doctors of the Medical College and Hospital and Calcutta National Medical College and Hospitals have decided to not to run the outpatient departments (OPD’S) on Monday and Tuesday.
The protesting doctors have however promised not to cause any inconvenience to the patients, and explained that they would run a ‘parallel OPD’s’ for the benefit of patents. A final year student at the Medical collage Avrojit Raha, said that they would keep the hospital OPD’s closed but at the same time run the parallel OPD from 9 am onwards as they had done on Saturday the 28th. Avrrojit is also a member of ‘Youth for Equality’ that is premier group, which is leading the anti-reservation protests across the country.Avrrojit stated that they would make sure that all patients would be attended to. He further said that along with the necessary treatment they would also be distributing free medicines to patients. One of the agitating doctor said that they are planning to shut down the OPD’s and run parallel units, but he also assured that there would be no exertion of force. He explained that senior doctors would be requested to leave the OPD’s as a mark of support for the movement. On Saturday, agitators at Medical College and Hospital pushed the doctors and patients out of the OPD’s and locked the rooms.
Authorities from both the hospitals emphasized that they would make sure that essential services would not be disrupted. M.Mukherjee, the National Medical College superintendent announced that the agitating doctor had not yet informed them about their proposed plan to shut down the OPD’s but promised to that in any such eventuality they would take all the necessary steps to ensure smooth functioning of services. A.N. Biswas, deputy superintendent of Medical College, said that the higher authorities were informed about the development.
Stepping up their protests, students and junior doctors will start a 48-hour relay hunger strike at Medical College from Monday. A hunger strike is already on at National Medical College, and has been joined by students and junior doctors from all teaching hospitals in the city. The agitators have stated that they would be stepping up their protests, and students and agitators would be embarking on a 48 hr relay hunger strike at the Medical collage.
The cease of work continued at the state-run hospitals in the city on Sunday, with only the emergency wards functioning. The authorities explained that some patients were being referred to other hospitals from the Medical College emergency ward, but they said there were no major disruptions.
