Resident doctors to halt nationwide elective services over Kolkata rape-murder

“As a mark of our solidarity with the colleagues of RG Kar, we announce a nationwide halting of elective services in hospitals starting Monday. This decision is not made lightly, but is necessary to ensure that our voices are heard and that the demands for justice and safety are met without further delay,” the FORDA wrote in a notice.

Notably, elective services are those that are not urgent and non-medically necessary. These also include scheduled clinical anaesthesia services provided on-site to patients.

The federation has put forward five demands.

They are: The demands of the residents of the RG Kar Medical College must be accepted and acted upon swiftly; there must be a firm assurance that no police brutality or manhandling of the protesting doctors will occur and their right to protest peacefully will be respected; justice must be served swiftly and due compensation should be provided to the family of the deceased; the union government must release and enforce a mandated protocol for the security of healthcare workers across all hospitals, ensuring strict compliance; and an expert committee comprising representatives from the medical community and associations must be formed to speed up ratifying the Central Healthcare Protection Act.