Kolkata: The protesting doctors in West Bengal on Monday agreed to withdraw their week-long stir after chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced steps to scale up security at hospitals.
An assurance to call off the strike came at a meeting Banerjee held with representatives of the striking doctors at the state secretariat.
“We are satisfied with the meeting,” a representative of the doctors said, assuring Banerjee that the strike is going to be called off.
A formal announcement on withdrawal of the strike is likely to be made from the epicentre of the protest, the NRS Medical College and Hospital.
This development came after Banerjee asked police to appoint nodal officers for the security of doctors at all government hospitals in the state as she met the striking medicos on Monday in a bid to end the week-long impasse.
In the meeting, which was held at the state secretariat, a doctors’ delegation apprised Banerjee of the problems they have been facing at medical colleges and hospitals and said they fear for their safety.
Banerjee asked the police officers present in meeting to appoint nodal officers for hospitals in the state for security of doctors.
West Bengal health secretary, MoS Chandrima Bhattacharya and other state officials were present in the meeting, besides 31 junior doctors.
Also read: A Doctor’s Strike Was Inevitable in West Bengal’s Broken Health System
The state government had consented to the protestors’ demand that meeting should be held in the presence of media and allowed only two regional news channels to cover the meeting.
The CM told the striking doctors that no doctor has been booked by the state government.
The representatives of the joint forum of junior doctors also sought exemplary punishment for those involved in assault on doctors at NRS Medical College and Hospital on June 11.
Banerjee also directed the formation of grievance redressal units in all state-run hospitals as proposed by the junior doctors.
She said the state government has taken adequate measures and arrested five people involved in NRS incident.
(PTI)