Post News Network
Sambalpur/Burla, Jan 19: In the wake of the strike by junior doctors completely paralysing healthcare services at VSS Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR), the state government Tuesday invited the former for talks.
Expressing concern over the development, health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak wrote a letter to the junior doctors association (JDA) inviting them for talks over the issue.
The JDA will dispatch a 10-member team to Bhubaneswar to meet the minister and have talks with him on the issue, said JDA president Shankar Ramchandani at Burla Tuesday. He, however, said the agitation will continue till their demands are met.
Meanwhile, MLA Raseshwari Panigrahi Tuesday tried to broker peace with the agitating doctors by having a discussion with them. Her efforts, however, went in vain after the JDA members refused to budge from their demands and resolved to continue their agitation.
Tuesday, the JDA members comprising over 12,000 junior doctors took out a rally from the hospital premises calling for fulfillment of their demands.
The rally passed through the Petrol Pump Square, bus stand, Daily Market, Bhakti Mandap, Gopabandhu Square and PG Square where the members gave away various slogans for fulfillment of their demands.
The movement got a further boost after various outfits like Koshal Rajya Sangathan, nursing staff association, farmer and labourer associations as well as women groups like Orissa Surakshya Mahila Sangathan came in their support.
The junior doctors represented by the JDA are on a cease work agitation from January 12 demanding fulfillment of their 11-point charter of demands.
Their agitation has completely paralysed healthcare delivery system in the hospital as it is the junior doctors who mostly attend to patients in the absence of senior doctors.
The agitation has intensified with each passing day entering its eight day, Tuesday. The stir has only benefited private hospitals and nursing homes that make hay from the patient’s sufferings.