WEST BENGAL-Doctors, Left Front and Health Services

October 29, 1983 WEST BENGAL Doctors, Left Front and Health Services Biren Roy THE movement of the junior doctors in West Bengal, after passing through different phases for about three months, again reached a climax with the decision of the junior doctors to observe cease-work in the outdoor departments of hospitals for seven days from September 21. The call for ceaser work was given as a protest against the assault on doctors by the relatives of a woman patient who had died soon after reaching the Nil Ratan Sarkar Hospital incidentally, the woman patient was a relative of a Congress(l) leader of West Bengal. The movement of the junior doctors is led by the All Bengal Junior Doctors' Federation (ABJDF). The ABJDF ran parallel outdoor clinics to help the patients coming to the hospitals. The parallel clinics were crowded. The Government of West Bengal claimed that only a small section of junior doctors responded to the cease-work call and the work in hospitals was not affected. But from different reports, it is clear that the majority of junior doctors had responded to the cease-work call and the work in hospitals in Calcutta was in .a state of complete deadlock- The West Bengal Government demanded a written explanation from the junior doctors about the circumstances in which they had abstained from duty during their cease-work in different Government hospitals. It also decided to defer payment of stipends to junior doctors for September and issue of internship completion certificates to those who completed their training on or before September 30. The junior doctors refused to submit any written explanation and served an ultimatum on different hospital authorities for unconditional payment of stipends and issue of completion certificates.