Senior doctors at Kolkata hospital ‘resign’ in support of juniors’ protest

More than 40 senior doctors at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday signed a mass resignation letter in support of the junior doctors in West Bengal protesting against the rape and murder of their colleague.

Their agitation began in response to the rape and murder of the 31-year-old trainee doctor at the state-run hospital on August 9.

On October 5, the junior doctors ended their “cease work” strike and launched an indefinite hunger strike, claiming that their safety demands had not been met. Six doctors from several medical institutions in Kolkata were participating in the hunger strike.

The senior doctors said that they were “giving mass resignation as the government seems to be oblivious of the deteriorating condition” of the medics on hunger strike, read the letter to the director of medical education and the ex-officio secretary of the state health and family welfare department.

“If the situation demands, we will also go for individual resignation,” it added.

However, they will not stop work immediately and would continue offering services to patients, The Hindu quoted an unidentified senior doctor as saying.

“Our junior doctors have been protesting for the past two months, and observing a hunger strike for three days,” the newspaper quoted the medic as saying. “Their health is deteriorating.”

The primary objective of the resignation letter was to send...

Read more