'What have we done?' In Didi vs Doctors battle, patients are the real victims

Junior doctors across all state-run hospitals in West Bengal are on a strike, demanding adequate security in medical colleges and hospitals after two of their colleagues were brutally beaten up at NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The two junior doctors were assaulted on Monday night by family members of a patient who died in the NRS Hospital.

While there is no end in sight with both Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and doctors standing their ground, it's the patients who are the real victims caught between the crossfire. 

Patients from across the West Bengal, some even from outside the state, visit Kolkata hospitals for treatment. Many of the poor families sacrifice their daily wages and spend thousands of rupees to travel to the state capital in the hope for better facilities. However, with doctors strike entering the fifth day today, all they have gotten is disappointment. 

Some have even lost their kin in the absence of doctors and cannot even put blame on anyone. Their only question to anyone who is ready to listen is: 'What have we done to suffer this?'

Rahul Biswas, who came from Basirhat for treatment of his mother, is returning with her dead body. Sulta Biswas, a cancer patient, arrived at NRS Hospital in Kolkata after her condition got worse last week.

"She was a cancer patient and recently received surgery. We came here after her she got a stomachache. We arranged blood and everything but nothing happened as there was a strike. She was admitted here on last Saturday but there is no doctor after the strike," Rahul said. 

Ram Chandra Sahu of Hooghly is at the NRS Hospital with his wife, a cancer patient. She lost her voice recently and arrived at the hospital on Tuesday to see a doctor. The couple, both senior citizens, spends Rs 250 to just reach Kolkata from their home and again came on Saturday with the hope to see a doctor. 

The couple's daughters run a vegetable shop near their home and they have spent whatever they are earning on their mother's travel from Hooghly to Kolkata, a journey that has borne no fruit. 

Another family detailed their ordeal of getting a child treated after a head injury. While the little girl has stitches on her head, she has been unable to see a doctor because of the strike. 

"She fell down while playing at home. She got stitches on her head and came here (NRS Hospital) today to see a doctor. We first went to Shishu Mangal Hospital but doctors there also refused to see her," the mother of the toddler said. 

"Any scuffle with doctors only costs the patients. There should be a solution as soon as possible. People come here from far away and returning now," she added. 

Emergency wards, outdoor facilities, pathological units of many state-run medical colleges and hospitals and a number of private medical facilities in the state have remained closed over the past five days in the wake of the protest.

Over 500 senior doctors of various state-run hospitals across the state have resigned from their services to show solidarity with the agitators. 

Meanwhile, agitating doctors turned down the invite for a closed-door meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat on Saturday, raising apprehension about their security, and instead asked her to visit the NRS Medical College and Hospital for an open discussion to resolve the impasse.

They said no representative of the agitating doctors would be attending the meeting called by Banerjee at the state secretariat on Saturday evening.

"We feel highly insecure and apprehensive regarding our representatives' meeting with the chief minister behind closed doors. That is why we are not sending any representatives to the Chief Minister's Office to attend the meeting," said a spokesperson of the joint forum of junior doctors after holding a governing body meeting.

Instead, they invited Banerjee for a meeting at the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital, where two doctors were allegedly assaulted by relatives of a patient who had died on Monday night.