Mamata’s misstep

The strike by the doctors of West Bengal, the crisis it created in the state’s healthcare sector and the echoes of the situation at the national level had more reasons than the attack on two junior doctors at a hospital in the state by the relatives of a patient following his death. The matter cannot be separated from the politics of the state, and the very genuine issue of doctors’ safety got sidelined by the way the Mamata Banerjee government handled it. It snowballed into a crisis after the insensitive and unreasonable refusal of the chief minister to even talk to the doctors about their grievances. She moderated her hard position later, met the doctors on Monday and the strike has been called off. But by then, the damage had already been done. The patient who died and those who attacked the doctors were from the minority community which is a support base for the Trinamool Congress, and the chief minister, driven by political considerations, was clearly on their side. The BJP, which made sizeable gains in the recent Lok Sabha elections, found an opportunity and responded politically. The whole issue got mixed up in the fraught and violent situation in the state after the Lok Sabha elections.

It was wrong that an issue of doctors’ and patients’ rights was turned into a communal and political matter, and Mamata Banerjee was mainly responsible for it. The first requirement to address the problem was to handle it as a doctor-patient problem which, in its implications and the way it has hit the state’s health sector, is a matter of public interest and importance. Mamata has alienated not only the doctors but the people also because of her stubborn stand. She was not ready to visit the hospital where the incident happened. It is strange that a leader who is known for her ability to respond positively to popular issues was so blinded by politics as to go against her duty to the public and the basic tenets of governance.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) supported the West Bengal doctors’ demands and called for a nation-wide strike on Monday. There is no need to emphasise the need to give adequate protection to doctors not only in West Bengal but all over the country. This can be done not just by strengthening the law but also by addressing effectively many other problems like the shortage of doctors and facilities, the inadequacies and inefficiencies of the public healthcare system and the commercialisation of the private sector. There should not be a hostile relationship between doctors and patients. While the West Bengal doctors have called off their protest, the episode has highlighted some larger issues that call for urgent attention.