New Delhi:
The Resident Doctors Association (RDA) at the AIIMS Delhi will today provide elective OPD services outside the Nirman Bhawan, which houses the Union health ministry amid protests over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata on August 9.

Here Are Top Points On Doctors’ Strike:

New Delhi:

Doctors have begun their 24-hour nationwide strike today in protest against the rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor in Kolkata.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has declared a nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency health services for 24 hours beginning at 6 am, over a week after the horrific incident at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. They also condemned the subsequent vandalism on the campus.

#WATCH | Patna, Bihar: Indian Medical Association (IMA) announces nationwide strike over RG Kar Medical College rape & murder incident.

(Visuals from Patna AIIMS) pic.twitter.com/kmCr5pq0ZN

— ANI (@ANI) August 17, 2024

All essential services will be maintained and casualties will be manned, the IMA said in a statement. The routine OPDs will not function and elective surgeries will not be conducted.

The withdrawal is across all sectors, wherever modern medicine doctors are providing service, the top body of doctors said.

“The RG Kar incident has brought to the fore two dimensions of violence in the hospital: A crime of barbaric scale due to the lack of safe spaces for women and the hooliganism that is unleashed due to lack of an organised security protocol,” it said.

“The crime and the vandalism have shocked the conscience of the nation. Today, both the medical fraternity and the nation are victims,” the statement added.

5 Demands Of Doctors On Nationwide Strike

The IMA has put forth five demands:

1. It wants a significant policy to address violence against doctors and hospitals. The doctors’ body is pushing for a Central Act that would incorporate the amendments made in 2023 to the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 into the proposed Hospital Protection Bill of 2019. This move, it said, would strengthen the existing legislation in 25 states. The IMA has suggested that an ordinance similar to the one enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic would be appropriate in this situation.
2. The IMA has also demanded that hospitals be declared safe zones with the first step being mandatory security entitlements. “The security protocols of all hospitals should be no less than (that of) an airport. Declaring the hospitals as safe zones with mandatory security entitlements is the first step. CCTVs, deployment of security personnel, and the protocols can follow,” it said in the statement.
3. The IMA has demanded a thorough overhaul of the working and living conditions of resident doctors, including the 36-hour duty shift that the victim was in and the lack of safe spaces to take a rest.
4. The IMA has also called for a “meticulous and professional” investigation of the Kolkata horror in a specific time frame and rendering of justice besides identifying those involved in the vandalism of the hospital premises and awarding exemplary punishment.
5. The doctors’ body has also sought an appropriate and dignified compensation to the bereaved family commensurate with the cruelty inflicted.

The trainee doctor was raped and murdered last week inside a medical college in Kolkata where she worked, triggering nationwide protests among doctors. Anger at the failure of tough laws to deter a rising tide of violence against women has fuelled widespread protests by doctors and women’s groups across the country. 

New Delhi:
Amid nationwide uproar over the gruesome rape-murder of a trainee doctor at a Kolkata Hospital, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has called for a nationwide strike and withdrawal of non-emergency medical services for 24 hours beginning today.

1. IMA, the largest organisation of doctors in India, has demanded an overhaul of the working and living conditions of resident doctors, including 36-hour shifts and safe places to rest. It sought a central law to prevent violence against medical professionals at workplaces.

2. During the strike, which began at 6 am today and will go on till Sunday, all emergency services will be functional. However, routine OPD services and elective surgeries will not be conducted. 

3. In its statement, the IMA has put forth a list of demands to ensure that security protocols of hospitals “be no less than (that of) an airport”. Hospitals should be declared as safe zones with CCTVs and higher deployment of security personnel, it said.

4. The doctors’ body also called for a thorough, swift investigation of the “barbaric” crime and asked for “appropriate and dignified” compensation to the victim’s family.

5. Key medical student organisations like The All India Medical Students’ Association (AIMSA) and Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) have joined the nationwide strike.

6. The IMA’s Chandigarh unit has suspended OPD services and will conduct a protest march from 11 am today. In Bengaluru, over 1,000 doctors are likely to participate in a protest at the IMA office.

7. The nationwide strike comes a day after students across Indian cities conducted protest marches and staged dharnas against the alleged inaction over the horrific rape-murder that has sent shockwaves across the country.

8. In Delhi, multiple resident doctors’ associations, including those from AIIMS and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, gathered at Nirman Bhawan on Friday. Doctors also conducted a candle march at India Gate.

9. Protesting doctors at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where the horrific crime took place, have expressed dissatisfaction, stating that their demands for justice have not been met. They have accused the police of mishandling the case and the ruling Trinamool Congress government of trying to destroy evidence to shield the accused.

10. The case is now being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under an order from the Calcutta High Court. “We have identified at least 30 suspects and have started questioning them,” a CBI officer said on Friday.

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New Delhi:

OPD services in government hospitals of several states across the country remained affected on Tuesday as the resident doctors’ strike over the alleged rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee in Kolkata entered its second day, even as the CBI took over the investigation in the case.

The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA), which called for a nationwide indefinite strike over the incident, on Tuesday night said it was calling off its strike as Union Health Minister J P Nadda has accepted their demands.

However, the medics at the central government-run AIIMS, the Indira Gandhi Hospital and other resident doctors’ associations, including the Federation of All India Medical Associations (FAIMA), said their stir would continue until a central law to curb attacks on medical personnel is implemented.

A delegation of FORDA met with Mr Nadda at his residence in New Delhi on Tuesday night.

FORDA said the decision to end the strike will be effective from Wednesday morning.

“A key outcome of the meeting was the health minister’s agreement to form a committee with FORDA’s involvement to work on the Central Protection Act. The ministry has assured that work on this will begin within the next 15 days,” the resident doctors’ body said in a statement.

In West Bengal, the epicentre of the protest, a widespread agitation by junior doctors crippled state healthcare services, with the functioning of even emergency and outdoor departments coming to a halt in most government hospitals.

Long queues of patients were seen at out-patient departments (OPDs) of all government hospitals since Tuesday morning as senior doctors were substituting their junior counterparts to address the rush.

In the national capital, elective services in government hospitals remained shut on Tuesday due to the ongoing strike.

On Tuesday, resident doctors in Maharashtra joined the indefinite strike. While all elective services in hospitals across the state have been halted, emergency services will continue uninterrupted, Maharashtra State Association of Residential Doctors (Central-MARD) president Dr Pratik Debaje told PTI.

“From 9 am, we stopped work at all OPDs (out-patient departments), and elective services have been stopped. Now, only emergency services are operational across the state,” Dr Debaje said.

Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered the transfer of probe into the case from the Kolkata Police to the CBI.

While transferring the investigation to the CBI, a division bench presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam also urged agitating doctors to call off their cease-work, maintaining that there is a “pious obligation” on their part to treat patients who come to government hospitals.

After the high court’s direction, the CBI took over the investigation and a team of the central agency sleuths from Delhi, along with forensic scientists and medical experts, will visit Kolkata on Wednesday, officials said.

The direction was passed in the wake of a petition moved by the victim’s parents praying for a court-monitored probe and multiple other PILs seeking probe transfer to the CBI.

The interim order came five days after the gruesome incident that took place at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

The body of the postgraduate trainee with severe injury marks all over was found inside the seminar hall of the state-run hospital’s chest department on Friday morning. The preliminary autopsy report suggested she was subjected to violent sexual assault.

Despite the Kolkata Police arresting a civic volunteer named Sanjay Roy in this connection on Saturday, the move failed to silence the clamour of allegations of a botched up investigation and evidence tampering which have now snowballed into an outrage of junior doctors spreading across medical campuses of the state and beyond.

In Uttar Pradesh, a doctors’ association has written to Union Health Minister J P Nadda, pressing for improved security measures at medical institutions, even as medicos continued protests in the state over the incident.

The protests are being held for the second day in a row at different medical colleges in various cities of the state including Greater Noida, Varanasi, Kanpur, Jhansi, Agra, Gorakhpur besides state capital Lucknow.

However, emergency services continued to function at the medical colleges participating in the protests, a senior office-bearer of the state Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) told PTI.

In Himachal Pradesh’s capital Shimla, patients visiting the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital faced inconvenience due to a strike by resident doctors.

Several people, especially the elderly who had come from distant places, had to return from the premier state-run hospital without treatment.

“We have closed the OPDs to protest against the alleged rape and murder of a female doctor in Kolkata and demand justice for the victim,” S Sharma, a resident doctor at the IGMC hospital, said.

Doctors and students of Agartala Government Medical College staged a demonstration, demanding exemplary punishment for the guilty in the case.

In Jharkhand’s Ranchi, junior doctors at state-run Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences started ‘pen-down’ agitation by boycotting OPD services and elective surgeries. However, they continued to attend emergency services at the premier hospital.

In Rajasthan, medical services at government facilities in Jaipur, including the largest state-run Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital, were affected as resident doctors went on a strike in protest against the Kolkata incident.

On Monday evening, the Jaipur Association of Resident Doctors (JARD) announced immediate suspension of non-essential services.

Meanwhile, the FORDA said it will continue its strike for a law to ensure the safety of healthcare workers.

In a post on X, the resident doctors’ body wrote, “No assurance on the Central Healthcare Protection Act–no call off– our demands remain incomplete.” “We will continue the strike until they are fully accepted,” it added.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) held a meeting with Union Health Minister J P Nadda to raise key issues affecting the medical community and gave him a memorandum of demands, which included declaration of hospitals as safe zones, introduction of a central law against violence, and security stipulations for medical college recognition.

According to Dr R V Asokan, National President of the IMA, Nadda agreed to consider the first two demands and accepted the demand for security stipulations for medical colleges.

The IMA’s call for improved working conditions and accommodation for resident doctors was also met with a favourable response from the minister, a statement said.

Meanwhile, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued an advisory for all medical colleges and institutions, urging them to develop a policy for a safe work environment within the college and hospital campuses for all the staff members, including faculty, students and resident doctors. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)