BS RAWAT
NEW DELHI : Lakhs of doctors in Government run hospitals across the country will go on a day's strike on June 14, 2019, against the brutal assault on doctors at NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

A mob of 200 people tried to kill two resident doctors in the Kolkata hospital, which prompted a total strike by doctors in West Bengal.

There will be a complete shutdown of all OPDs, routine OT and wards, except emergency services, in these hospitals, which treat around 65 lakh patients every day.

“The government refused to listen to us, so we are forced to go on strike,” said Dr Sumedh Sandanshiv, president of the Federation Of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA).

Dr Sandanshiv stated, “We have decided to keep the emergency departments at all hospitals running so that medical care can be provided to those in dire need.”

The doctors have demanded immediate arrest of all the perpetrators by identifying the attackers from CCTV in the hospital and social media videos."

“There is a complete breakdown of law and order with reports of mobs attacking doctors' hostels with weapons. The government has failed to provide protection and justice to doctors,” said Dr Amarinder Singh, president RDA AIIMS, Delhi.

The doctors associations urged RDAs across the nation to join in this one day strike of work saying that they do regret the patient inconvenience, but the callous government leaves them with no option.

Meanwhile, doctors in Delhi observed Black Day on June 13 against the government's silence on the brutal assault on doctors in Kolkata. Members of the DMA and  IMA wore black badges and staged protest in the offices of district collectors.

In AIIMS Delhi, doctors were seen wearing helmets and head bandages with fake blood as a symbolic gesture against potential threat that resident doctors face from angry patients and their relatives who may not be impressed with the treatment despite their lack of medical knowledge.