Over 300 medical students, interns and junior doctors Friday took to streets of Agartala in solidarity with the interns who were attacked and seriously injured following a patient’s death at NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on Monday.
All undergraduate, post-graduate medical students of Agartala Government Medical College (AGMC) and Govind Ballabh Pant (GBP) Hospital came out in protest against the NRS Medical College assault. The junior doctors and medical students, later sat in demonstration for four hours in front of AGMC demanding proper security for doctors on duty and exemplary punishment for assaulters.
“Assaults and their intensity on doctors are increasing by the day. Doctors are posed as killers and are beaten, often lynched. We demand proper security for doctors who are on duty. We also want exemplary punishment for the assaulters who perpetrated the heinous incident at NRS Medical College in West Bengal”, said Dr Rajesh Choudhury, General Secretary of All Tripura Government Doctors Association (ATGDA).
The protesting doctors also said the healthcare sector in Tripura is not much different from Bengal.
As per the National Health Guideline, Tripura is supposed to have 3,900 doctors. However, the state, which is on the way to become a major healthcare hub in the North East region, has got only 1,100 doctors.
Medical students at the protest said they joined the protest to garner support for passing a separate law that would protect medical officers in the line of duty.
Medical Officers of Tripura Medical College and Dr BR Ambedkar Teaching Hospital joined duty wearing black badges today. Doctors from the Departments of ENT, Medicine, Dentistry and Pathology joined the protest as well.
Protests were observed at a few private nursing homes in Agartala city as well. Similar protests were earlier held at Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed College in Barpeta district and Silchar Medical College of Assam.
Clashes erupted between doctors and relatives of a patient at NRS Medical College and Hospital at Kolkata late on Monday night after the patient died. Family members of the deceased soon accused medical officers on duty of negligence which led to the casualty. Later, a group of 200 people assaulted doctors, during which two interns were injured: Paribaha Mukherjee, hit by stones, is being treated at the Institute of Neurosciences and Yash Tekwani was admitted to NRS.