The West Bengal government has invited agitating junior doctors for a meeting on Wednesday evening to resolve the RG Kar impasse, an official said.
The meeting has been scheduled at ‘Swasthya Bhavan’ — the state health department headquarters in Salt Lake.
"You may bring a delegation of 8-10 members," Chief Secretary Manoj Pant said in an email to the medics.
The doctors are on a fast-unto-death, demanding justice for the RG Kar Hospital victim.
Debasish Halder, a member of the Junior Doctors' Forum, said they would attend the meeting.
“However, we will stick to our 10 demands, including removal of the health secretary," Halder said.
West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Wednesday evening met junior doctors, on fast-unto-death over the RG Kar issue, in Kolkata's Esplanade area and enquired about their health condition, an official said.
Bose spoke to seven junior doctors, who have been fasting since the last four days, demanding justice for the RG Kar hospital victim, he said.
The governor met the medics to boost their morale, the official added.
The doctors detailed Bose about their demands that also include a major overhaul of the infrastructure of the state’s healthcare system, mainly in terms of safety and security.
Moreover, the mass resignation of senior doctors at different medical colleges and hospitals in West Bengal to express solidarity with their junior counterparts did not hamper healthcare services at these medical establishments, an official of the state health department claimed on Wednesday.
Patient inflow at the out-patient department was considerably low due to the ongoing Durga Puja festivities across the state though senior and junior doctors, RMOs and assistant professors were present in the hospitals across West Bengal to perform their regular duties, the official said.
"We are yet to receive any official communication from any of the doctors in connection with their mass resignation. There is no such norm to offer mass resignation. If people want to resign, they will have to follow a certain process. However, healthcare services were not affected because no doctor was absent in any of the hospitals today," the health official told PTI.
Several doctors and faculty members in Kolkata followed their colleagues in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital who had resigned en masse on Tuesday and sent their mass resignation to the Director of Medical Education, according to Kolkata Medical College Resident Doctors' Association.
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