Kolkata doctors' strike: Odisha medicos protest with bandages on their foreheads, express solidarity with colleagues in Bengal

Bhubaneswar: As a mark of solidarity towards their protesting colleagues in West Bengal, junior doctors in Odisha Friday staged a dharna with bandages on their foreheads, besides staying away from duty.

Members of the Resident Doctors Association (RDA), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar went on a cease-work, protesting the attack on two junior doctors in the neighbouring state.

More than 250 junior doctors sat on a dharna with bandages on their foreheads and did not join duty, including doctors from the outpatient department (OPD).

“The cease-work by the resident doctors has affected the health service at AIIMS here. The strike is for one day as a mark of solidarity towards the agitating doctors in West Bengal,” a senior doctor at the AIIMS said.

The Residents’ Doctor Association, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar said in a press release, that it was disheartened and saddened at the grievous crime against the medical fraternity of West Bengal. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has directed the members of all its state branches to stage protests and wear black badges on Friday.

In a communique to all its state presidents and secretaries, the (IMA) has asked them to organise demonstrations in front of the district collectors’ offices from 10 am to noon on Friday and hand over a memorandum addressed to the prime minister to the collectors in every district.

The junior doctors have been agitating in West Bengal since Tuesday demanding security for themselves in government hospitals, after two of their colleagues were attacked and seriously injured allegedly by relatives of a patient who died at the state-run NRS Medical College and Hospital.

Odisha Medical Services Association (OMSA) and doctors of the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack on Thursday had also protested the incident in West Bengal.