Bengal Congress chief faces 'go back' slogans by protesting doctors at state-run hospital

Kolkata: Congress' West Bengal unit chief Subhankar Sarkar and several other party leaders were greeted with 'go back' slogans by agitating junior doctors at a state-run hospital on Sunday when they reached the health facility.

The agitating doctors at the College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital on the northern outskirts of Kolkata have been continuing 'cease work' to protest against the alleged assault of medics and nurses at the health facility following the death of a patient during treatment.

They asserted that their demonstration to secure safety and security at the workplace was "apolitical and no politicians would be allowed to join their platform".

"This is a mass movement of citizens for better healthcare infrastructure and more security for doctors, nurses and other health personnel at workplaces. This is the platform of junior doctors. You please leave the place and we request you with folded hands," one of the protesting junior doctors told Sarkar, the president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee.

Sarkar left the spot and told reporters, "We came here as ordinary citizens, not as political personalities. We are leaving the site, honouring the sentiment and wishes of junior doctors, who are like our children."

He claimed that the "doctors did not ask him to go back".

"They don't want any political colour in their movement. We did not carry our party flag today," the Congress leader said.

Sarkar described the September 27 incident at Sagar Dutta hospital as another instance of "collapse of security for healthcare personnel at health facilities, which earlier came to the fore during the R G Kar agitation".

He said, "We call upon Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to hand over the health department to someone else as she is apparently saddled with other responsibilities and cannot do justice to her role as the state health minister."

Junior doctors of West Bengal on Saturday said that they would decide on resuming total 'cease work' in medical colleges after observing the state government's submission on their safety and security at workplaces during the hearing of the RG Kar case in the Supreme Court on September 30.

Their decision was taken after the attack on three doctors and three nurses following the death of a patient at the Sagore Dutta hospital on Friday night.

The medics alleged that the attacks at the state-run hospital have shown that the state government has "totally failed" to deliver promises to provide them security.