Kolkata medic murder: KGMU students, doctors march to DGHS office; protests continue in UP

NEW DELHI: More than 200 students and junior doctors of King George's Medical University here on Wednesday took out a march to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) office in solidarity with the female medic who was raped and murdered at a hospital in Kolkata. Meanwhile, the strike and protests by doctors of several hospitals the state over the incident entered the third day. Emergency services are, however, continuing in the medical colleges and hospitals that have participated in the protest but junior doctors are not attending to other services such as outpatient departments (OPD), Uttar Pradesh Resident Doctors Association (RDA) president Dr Hardeep Jogi told PTI. Peaceful protests are being held for the third consecutive day in medical colleges and hospitals in the state from Greater Noida to Varanasi and cities such as Kanpur, Jhansi, Agra, Gorakhpur as well as in the capital Lucknow, Dr Jogi said. In the state capital, students and doctors of KGMU, mostly women, marched from the university to the office building of DGHS, carrying posters condemning the Kolkata incident.

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Nationwide protests are being held over the brutal rape and murder of the postgraduate trainee at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in the West Bengal capital. Her body was found in the seminar hall of the premier state-run hospital on Friday morning and a man was arrested on Saturday in connection with the crime. Dr Jogi said that the incident revealed serious lapses in the security measures in the hospital campus. "RDA Uttar Pradesh expresses its deep condolences on the death of this young woman and strongly condemns the failures responsible for such a heinous crime. The inability to protect our institutions reflects serious lapses of administration and governance," he said. The association has written a letter to Union health minister J P Nadda and sought an urgent meeting with him to discuss the pressing issues faced by the medical community, the "escalating violence" against doctors and the "deteriorating working conditions" which have created "an atmosphere of fear".