Resident Docs of Maharashtra and AIIMS Delhi on 1-day Strike in Support of Agitating WB Junior Docs

Around 4,500 resident doctors in Maharashtra stayed away from work Friday in solidarity with the ongoing junior doctors' protest in West Bengal.

The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) said junior doctors at government hospitals in the state will not perform surgeries or attend to out-patient departments (OPDs) between 8 am and 5 pm Friday.However, emergency services will not be affected, it said.

"We will not be treating any patients in routine OPDs or carry out surgeries or take rounds of the wards. Doctors posted on emergency duties will not participate in the protest," a resident doctor, who is a member of MARD, said.

Also Read: https://www.newsclick.in/Bengal-Medical-Services-Disrupted-Doctors-Strike

On Thursday, doctors with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi also joined in the protest. To express their solidarity with the protesting doctors, residents at India's premier medical institution wore helmets and used bandages to demonstrate their displeasure with the attack on medicos. Junior doctors in Chandigarh, Hyderabad and other cities also allied with the protest to demand protection for medical professionals.

Healthcare facilities in Delhi are set to be widely affected as doctors at the critically important AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospitals will be joining the agitation for a day on Friday as well.

Several Junior doctors in West Bengal are on strike since Tuesday demanding better security at workplace after two of their colleagues were attacked and seriously injured at the NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata allegedly by relatives of a patient who died at the hospital.

The Indian Medical Association has declared Friday "All India Protest Day" against the assault on junior doctors.

Also read:https://www.newsclick.in/index.php/West-Bengal-CM-Threatens-Protesting-Junior-Doctors