Kolkata, June 13, 2019: Amid the ongoing impasse in the West Bengal hospitals over junior doctors’ strike, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday issued a letter to the senior doctors in the state, appealing to them to take care of all patients. She urged them to run the hospitals “smoothly and peacefully”.
Earlier in the day, Banerjee went to the state-run SSKM Hospital, where she gave agitating doctors a four-hour ultimatum to withdraw their strike and warned of “strong action” if the situation was not normalized within the deadline.
“My humble regards to all of you. Please take care of all patients. The poor people are coming from all districts. I will be honoured and obliged if you all please take full care of the hospitals,” Banerjee wrote in her letter to the senior doctors. “Hospitals must run smoothly and peacefully,” she added.
Protests erupted at the NRS Hospital on Tuesday morning bringing regular services to a standstill after a junior doctor was allegedly beaten up by the kin of a 75-year-old patient who died there late on Monday night. The family members of the deceased patient alleged medical negligence.
An intern named Paribaha Mukherjee sustained a serious skull injury in the attack and has been admitted in the intensive care unit of the Institute of Neurosciences in Kolkata’s Park Circus area.
Going on the warpath, junior doctors in almost all state-run hospitals have gone on strike for over two days. (IANS)
