DTMT Network
The call by FORDA-India and by various associations of doctors in government hospitals across the country for a one day strike received a massive India-wide response and doctors came out in strong numbers to strike work strike on June 14, 2019, in solidarity with the striking doctors in West Bengal.

It may be recalled that the doctors in government hospitals in West Bengal have been on strike for the last five days ever since two of their colleagues in the NRS hospital in Kolkata were mercilessly beaten by relatives of a patient who had died during treatment.

In West Bengal, the Chief Minister first tried threatening the doctors to end their strike, and then tried requesting them, but to no avail. The support for the striking doctors all over the country seems to have snowballed into a movement with the doctors now demanding that legislation should be brought to ensure their security so that they can work with a free mind in the service of the patients.

The strike was total in all the hospitals in Delhi, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Safdarjung Hospitals. In Hyderabad, the famous Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences had a total strike. So did all government hospitals spread across the country including PGI Chandigarh.

Thankfully, the strike is only for a day, so that the patients will suffer inconvenience only for one day.

In West Bengal, however, the situation will have to be resolved, for, the doctors are charging the Chief Minister with having given a political twist to their strike and given it a communal angle. Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister, seems to have accused the doctors of not treating Muslim patients, which the doctors vehemently deny.

The politicking seems to be exacerbating an already difficult situation in West Bengal and it will need a statesmanlike attitude to end the crisis in heralth care that West Bengal faces today.