Kolkata rape-murder case: Healthcare services hit in Gujarat doctors join nationwide protest

Ahmedabad: Healthcare services in Gujarat were affected as doctors from government and private hospitals took to the streets on Saturday amid the 24-hour nationwide protest over the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at a Kolkata medical college.

Doctors stayed away from the outpatient departments (OPDs) and did not conduct elective surgeries in several hospitals across the state as part of a strike call given by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Gujarat Junior Doctors' Association.

Doctors held protest gatherings and took out rallies, shouting slogans demanding justice for the woman doctor who was brutally raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9.

Dr Mona Desai, a former president of the IMA's Ahmedabad chapter, led a delegation of protesting doctors and submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel in the state capital Gandhinagar.

"We have submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel with a list of demands, including an increase in security, making hospitals safe zones with CCTV cameras and enhanced security personnel so that doctors can work in a safe environment without fear," Desai later told reporters.

The strike affected OPD services in several government hospitals.

Junior doctors of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Rajkot joined the protest and stayed away from the OPD, while in Vadodara, doctors at GMERS Hospital urged patients to join the stir and distributed pamphlets to raise awareness about the issue.

Dr Hemangi Shah, a junior doctor at GMERS, Gandhinagar, said that she and her colleagues were protesting for the harshest punishment for the accused in the rape and murder.

"We also demand security in government hospitals. We are not happy with the security in emergency wards at the hospital, especially for the staff on night duty," she said.

The IMA on Friday put forth five demands, including a thorough overhaul of the working and living conditions of resident doctors and a central law to check violence against healthcare professionals at workplaces.

It declared a nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency medical services for 24 hours beginning at 6 am on Saturday.

All essential services will be maintained, and casualties will be manned. The routine OPDs will not function, and elective surgeries will not be conducted. The withdrawal is across all the sectors wherever modern medicine doctors are providing service, the doctors' body had said in a statement.