Doctors must return to work

After a month of disrupted services, it is time for normalcy to return to government hospitals in West Bengal. To that end, the Supreme Court’s direction to doctors in the state, who have been on a protest since the August 9 rape-murder of a doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hopsital, to return to work must be heeded. There is no denying that the doctors’ protest is wholly legitimate and just. The grisly rape and murder of the doctor at the government-run hospital in Kolkata exposed the punishing conditions that doctors face at work and the particular vulnerability of women doctors. Till the time the infrastructural and procedural deficiencies at the workplace are not addressed, and the doctors are not assured of their safety and security, their anxieties will remain and the administration shouldn’t play these down. Such changes, of course, won’t occur overnight, but the state has to demonstrate intent. Against this backdrop, the Supreme Court’s direction to the West Bengal government to submit details of the steps taken to ensure the safety of medical professionals needs to be complied with urgently.

The other demand, for a credible investigation of the crime and justice for the victim, also needs to be taken seriously. The mishandling of the case by the state administration eroded not just the doctors’ faith in a fair probe but also that of the public at large. It will be hard for the doctors to put aside their distrust and return to work for the same administration that failed their colleague. The doctors’ insistence on continuing the agitation even after the apex court’s direction needs to be seen in this light.

Brutal crackdowns on protest marches and poorly concealed threats against “absenteeism” by the state’s ruling party leaders have stoked apprehensions of reprisal. While the top court has directed the state government to take no punitive action against doctors, there is perhaps a case for court-supervised monitoring to ensure this.

The agitation, however, must end now, given the fallout for health services in the state. The government claims “absenteeism” has caused 23 deaths in the state; whatever the number, the vulnerable sections that need government-run health services the most must not become collateral damage in the stand-off. The case shone a spotlight on the doctors’ plight, and fostered public support for their demands. Their dignified stance of remaining politically neutral earned them respect. But both could quickly run out if the protests continue to impose a human cost.