Mamata Banerjee reaches out to Bengal’s govt docs, announces salary hike | Kolkata

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee reached out to government doctors on Monday, announcing a hike in salaries of junior and senior doctors and her decision to revoke the suspension of six trainee doctors.

The chief minister also announced the government’s decision to allow private practice of government doctors within 30km of their place of work, up from the existing limit of 20km.

“The salaries of interns, house staff, post-graduate trainees and post-doctoral trainees are being raised by ₹10,000 and that of senior resident doctors by ₹15,000,” Banerjee said, addressing a gathering of junior and senior doctors and medical students in Kolkata.

This was the first such meeting of the medical fraternity addressed by the chief minister after state-wide protests erupted last year following the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August last year.

One of the steps that the government had taken following the protests that followed was to set up a grievance redressal committee to address issues of healthcare professionals in the state. Monday’s meeting was organised by this committee.

The suspension of the junior doctors at the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital is also being withdrawn, she said, referring to the death of a woman, Mamoni Ruidas, on January 10 after delivering her baby. Three other women who gave birth at the hospital around the same time also fell critically ill after giving birth.

The six post-graduate trainee junior doctors were among the 12 doctors including the medical superintendent and vice principal (MSVP) who were suspended following the death.

“There was definitely some negligence behind the death in Midnapore Medical College and Hospital (MMCH). A probe is going on,” Banerjee said, as she announced the decision to withdraw the suspension of the junior doctors.

The ruling Trinamool Congress has also launched a new association of doctors, the Progressive Health Association (PHA) to “work as a bridge between the government and medical fraternity”.

“Doctors in state-run hospitals and medical colleges must work for eight hours. Beyond that they can do private practice. I am relaxing the rules. They may do private practice within 30 km. Earlier it was 20 km,” she said.

Government doctors who have not opted for a non-practising allowance are allowed private practice after their duty provided this place is within 20km of their place of posting, and that they get a no-objection certificate from the government. This distance has been increased to 30 km on Monday.

A statement by the Joint Platform of Doctors in West Bengal later expressed their disappointment with Banerjee’s announcements, saying they hadn’t asked for a hike. “We are disappointed. We didn’t get the answers to burning questions, including corruption in medical institutions and medical education, threat culture, recruitment and transparency in transfer and posting among others. We welcome the hike in salaries. But hike in salaries was not in our demands. There was no allocation for this in the state budget. These announcements could have bene done from the state secretariat. There was no need to spend huge amount and bring in 2,000 doctors from the across the state to Kolkata to announce this,” the association said.