Nationwide Medical Strike in India Over Doctor's Tragic Death

Hospitals and clinics across India halted non-emergency services for 24 hours to protest the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata. The strike aims to draw attention to rising violence against healthcare workers. Nationwide, over a million doctors participated, severely disrupting medical services.

Hospitals and clinics across India turned away patients except for emergency cases on Saturday as medical professionals began a 24-hour shutdown in protest of the brutal rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata. More than one million doctors were expected to join the strike, paralyzing medical services across the world's most populous nation. Hospitals said faculty staff from medical colleges were being pressed into service for emergency cases.

The strike, which began at 6 a.m. (0030 GMT), halted elective medical procedures and outpatient consultations, according to a statement by the Indian Medical Association (IMA). A 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and murdered last week inside the medical college in Kolkata where she worked, triggering nationwide protests among doctors and drawing parallels to the notorious gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012.

Outside the RG Kar Medical College, where the crime took place, a heavy police presence was seen on Saturday while the hospital premises were deserted, according to the ANI news agency. Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, which includes Kolkata, has backed the protests across the state, demanding the investigation be fast-tracked and the guilty be punished as harshly as possible.

Many private clinics and diagnostic centers remained closed in Kolkata on Saturday. Dr. Sandip Saha, a private pediatrician in the city, told Reuters he would attend to patients only in emergencies.

Hospitals and clinics in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, and Chennai also joined the strike, which is one of the largest medical service shutdowns in recent memory. In Odisha state, patients were queuing up, and senior doctors tried to manage the rush, Dr. Prabhas Ranjan Tripathy, additional medical superintendent of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Bhubaneswar, told Reuters.

“Resident doctors are on full strike, and because of that, the pressure is mounting on all faculty members, which means senior doctors,” he said.

Patients queued up at hospitals, some unaware that the agitation would prevent them from receiving medical attention. “I have spent 500 rupees ($6) on travel to come here. I have paralysis and a burning sensation in my feet, head, and other parts of my body,” an unidentified patient at SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack said.

'We were not aware of the strike. What can we do? We have to return home.' Raghunath Sahu, 45, said after failing to get attention for his ailing grandmother.

India's Central Bureau of Investigation is questioning medical students from the RG Kar college to ascertain the crime’s circumstances. Anger over the failure of tougher laws to deter rising violence against women has fuelled protests.

'Women form the majority of our profession in this country. Time and again, we have asked for safety for them,' IMA President R.V. Asokan said. The IMA calls for tougher legal measures to protect healthcare workers and swift action against the crime's perpetrators.