Mass resignation of doctors has no legal value, says Bengal government

Kolkata: The West Bengal government on Saturday said that the “mass resignation” of senior doctors in various state-run medical colleges and hospitals, expressing solidarity with the junior doctors who are holding an indefinite hunger strike, has no legal value.
Meanwhile, one more junior doctor had to be rushed to the hospital under critical conditions after he fell ill on the seventh day of the hunger strike even as two more medics joined the strike on Saturday.
“These mass resignations, as they are being described, actually have no legal value. Resignation is a subject between the employer and the employee to be discussed in terms of specific service rules. If any individual wants to tender resignation from a government service, in terms of the given services rules, the individual has to write to the employer. This kind of a generic letter has no legal standing,” Alapan Bandyopadhyay, chief advisor to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, told reporters at the state secretariat.
A few hundred senior doctors in various state-run medical colleges and hospitals across West Bengal have tendered mass resignation over the past few days expressing solidarity with the junior doctors who are holding an indefinite hunger strike.
More senior doctors have threatened to resign if the demands of the junior doctors were not met. On Saturday, more than 30 doctors of the state-run Prafulla Chandra Sen Government Medical College in Hooghly district sent a letter to the state health department in this regard.
Nine junior doctors started an indefinite fast on October 5 demanding justice for the trainee doctor who was allegedly raped and murdered in RG Kar Hospital on August 9. They alleged that the state administration didn’t meet their 10 demands related to strengthening security and infrastructure in government hospitals.
“The senior doctors have tendered their mass resignation. Now it is up to the state government whether it will accept the resignations or come up with loop holes,” said a senior doctor while speaking to the media.
While on Friday Dr Aniket Mahata, one junior doctor and a prominent face of the medics’ movement, fell ill and had to be rushed to the hospital, on Saturday another medic Dr Aloke Verma fell ill and had to be admitted in the CCU of North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. Dr Mahata’s condition was stated to be stable by the RG Kar Hospital authorities where was admitted on Friday. Two more junior doctors joined the hunger strike on Saturday.
“If one of us fall sick, two more will join the strike. Such is our motivation. The fight will continue till our demands were met,” said a junior doctor.
The junior doctors have placed a set of 10 demands before the government – justice for the victim, removal of state health secretary, a centralised referral system, digital bed vacancy monitors in all hospitals, task forces in every medical colleges with elected representation of junior doctors, deployment of police in hospitals, filling up of vacancies in hospitals, hold election of student councils, college-level enquiry committees to probe into allegations of threat culture and probe into the alleged corruption in the state medical council among others.
Meanwhile, dozens of senior doctors in some of the state’s biggest private hospitals have announced their decisions to stop non-emergency services such as planned surgeries and OPD services from Monday to support the fasting junior doctors. The list includes Fortis, Peerless, Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, Apollo and Manipal hospitals.
“We have urged all doctors to hold a partial cease work for 48-hours on Monday and Tuesday. Doctors will not attend non-emergency duties in hospitals, diagnostic clinics and even tehri own private chambers,” Dr Smartya Pulai, a nephrologist told media persons in Kolkata.