Mamata may visit injured intern, docs continue with stir

KOLKATA: Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to visit private hospital Saturday afternoon to see a young doctor who is recuperating after an attack by family of a patient at the NRS hospital which sparked a widespread strike by junior doctors which began on Tuesday.

However, there is no official confirmation about the visit. The doctor, Paribaha Mukherjee, who was attacked by relatives of a patient who died Monday evening at the NRS hospital, had suffered head injuries. He was admitted to a private hospital – Institute of Neurosciences Kolkata in the city’s Mallik Bazar area. He has since recovered and is now said to be stable, sources said. Another doctor had also been attacked along with Mukherjee.

Striking junior doctors have turned down Mamata Banerjee’s invitation for a meeting at the state secretariat, which was called to resolve the impasse, and continued their protest for the fifth consecutive day on Saturday.

The junior doctors issued a statement after a general body meeting early afternoon saying they will not attend the meeting with the chief minister at the state secretariat at 5 pm.

“We don’t want a few representatives of ours to hold a meet

THE DOCTORS HAVE SOUGHT AN APOLOGY FROM THE CM AND SET SIX CONDITIONS FOR THE STATE GOVERNMENT TO WITHDRAW THE STIR

ing behind closed doors,” doctors at NRS Hospital said in a statement.

The general body meeting was held after a meeting with the president of the IMA at NRS Medical College and Hospital on Saturday morning.

The doctors have sought unconditional apology from Banerjee and set six conditions for the state government to withdraw the stir.

The stir has spread beyond Bengal across 17 states and Union Territories and involved about 100,000 doctors across India, according to reports from various medical associations.

Several hundred doctors across the state also “expressed their wish to resign” from their posts on Friday.

Resident doctors of All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) and Safdarjung Hospital, who boycotted work on Friday have given a 48-hour ultimatum to Banerjee to meet the demands of the state’s agitating doctors, failing which they said they would begin an indefinite strike.