Doctor rape-murder: OPD services affected across country as doctors' strike enters 2nd day

New Delhi/Kolkata: OPD services in government hospitals of several states across the country remained affected on Tuesday as the resident doctors' strike over the alleged rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee in Kolkata entered its second day, even as the CBI took over the investigation in the case.

The Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA), which called for a nationwide indefinite strike over the incident, on Tuesday night said it was calling off its strike as Union Health Minister J P Nadda has accepted their demands.

A delegation of FORDA met with Nadda at his residence in New Delhi on Tuesday night.

FORDA said the decision to end the strike will be effective from Wednesday morning.

"A key outcome of the meeting was the health minister's agreement to form a committee with FORDA’s involvement to work on the Central Protection Act. The ministry has assured that work on this will begin within the next 15 days," the resident doctors' body said in a statement.

In West Bengal, the epicentre of the protest, a widespread agitation by junior doctors crippled state healthcare services, with the functioning of even emergency and outdoor departments coming to a halt in most government hospitals.

Long queues of patients were seen at out-patient departments (OPDs) of all government hospitals since Tuesday morning as senior doctors were substituting their junior counterparts to address the rush.

In the national capital, elective services in government hospitals remained shut on Tuesday due to the ongoing strike.

On Tuesday, resident doctors in Maharashtra joined the indefinite strike. While all elective services in hospitals across the state have been halted, emergency services will continue uninterrupted, Maharashtra State Association of Residential Doctors (Central-MARD) president Dr Pratik Debaje told PTI.

"From 9 am, we stopped work at all OPDs (out-patient departments), and elective services have been stopped. Now, only emergency services are operational across the state," Dr Debaje said.

Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered the transfer of probe into the case from the Kolkata Police to the CBI.

While transferring the investigation to the CBI, a division bench presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam also urged agitating doctors to call off their cease-work, maintaining that there is a “pious obligation” on their part to treat patients who come to government hospitals.

After the high court's direction, the CBI took over the investigation and a team of the central agency sleuths from Delhi, along with forensic scientists and medical experts, will visit Kolkata on Wednesday, officials said.

The direction was passed in the wake of a petition moved by the victim’s parents praying for a court-monitored probe and multiple other PILs seeking probe transfer to the CBI.

The interim order came five days after the gruesome incident that took place at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

The body of the postgraduate trainee with severe injury marks all over was found inside the seminar hall of the state-run hospital’s chest department on Friday morning. The preliminary autopsy report suggested she was subjected to violent sexual assault.

Despite the Kolkata Police arresting a civic volunteer named Sanjay Roy in this connection on Saturday, the move failed to silence the clamour of allegations of a botched up investigation and evidence tampering which have now snowballed into an outrage of junior doctors spreading across medical campuses of the state and beyond.

In Uttar Pradesh, a doctors' association has written to Union Health Minister J P Nadda, pressing for improved security measures at medical institutions, even as medicos continued protests in the state over the incident.

The protests are being held for the second day in a row at different medical colleges in various cities of the state including Greater Noida, Varanasi, Kanpur, Jhansi, Agra, Gorakhpur besides state capital Lucknow.

However, emergency services continued to function at the medical colleges participating in the protests, a senior office-bearer of the state Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) told PTI.

In Himachal Pradesh's capital Shimla, patients visiting the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital faced inconvenience due to a strike by resident doctors.

Several people, especially the elderly who had come from distant places, had to return from the premier state-run hospital without treatment.

"We have closed the OPDs to protest against the alleged rape and murder of a female doctor in Kolkata and demand justice for the victim," S Sharma, a resident doctor at the IGMC hospital, said.

Doctors and students of Agartala Government Medical College staged a demonstration, demanding exemplary punishment for the guilty in the case.

In Jharkhand's Ranchi, junior doctors at state-run Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences started 'pen-down' agitation by boycotting OPD services and elective surgeries. However, they continued to attend emergency services at the premier hospital.

In Rajasthan, medical services at government facilities in Jaipur, including the largest state-run Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital, were affected as resident doctors went on a strike in protest against the Kolkata incident.

On Monday evening, the Jaipur Association of Resident Doctors (JARD) announced immediate suspension of non-essential services.

Meanwhile, the FORDA said it will continue its strike for a law to ensure the safety of healthcare workers.

In a post on X, the resident doctors' body wrote, "No assurance on the Central Healthcare Protection Act--no call off-- our demands remain incomplete." "We will continue the strike until they are fully accepted," it added.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) held a meeting with Union Health Minister J P Nadda to raise key issues affecting the medical community and gave him a memorandum of demands, which included declaration of hospitals as safe zones, introduction of a central law against violence, and security stipulations for medical college recognition.

According to Dr R V Asokan, National President of the IMA, Nadda agreed to consider the first two demands and accepted the demand for security stipulations for medical colleges.

The IMA's call for improved working conditions and accommodation for resident doctors was also met with a favourable response from the minister, a statement said.

Meanwhile, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued an advisory for all medical colleges and institutions, urging them to develop a policy for a safe work environment within the college and hospital campuses for all the staff members, including faculty, students and resident doctors.