Why Mamata Banerjee extended an olive branch to doctors, hiked salaries, revoked suspensions

The key announcements the CM made on Monday were:

A salary hike of Rs 10,000 for junior doctors.

Salary hikes ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 for senior residents, postgraduate senior residents, and post-doctoral resident doctors.

Government doctors can now have their private practice within 30 km of their hospital. The earlier limit was 20 km. “Please don’t leave everything to junior doctors. Spend eight hours in government hospitals and then go to your private practice, I have no problem.,” Banerjee urged senior doctors.

The TMC government’s approach now is in sharp contrast with how the party was dealing with the doctors, a section of whom are still simmering, last month. Apart from suspending the junior doctors in the Medinipur case — Banerjee on Monday said though there had been lapses, the entire blame should not have fallen on the junior doctors — the government was also seen as going after a face of the R G Kar protests when the police searched the house of Dr Asfaqullah Naiya in Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas based on a complaint that he was allegedly involved in a private practice as an ENT surgeon even though he was a postgraduate trainee in the ENT department at R G Kar Hospital.

One view in the TMC is that with a section of doctors still simmering, the party should not take any chances lest there be another sustained agitation before the state elections next year. A forum of junior doctors that met Banerjee almost 40 days ago to raise various demands, including basic infrastructural upgrades in state-run hospitals, said a day before the Monday event that the healthcare system was at a “breaking point” and urged the CM to prevent a “catastrophic collapse”.

The Abhaya Mancha, which was at the forefront of the R G Kar agitation, said the salaries of government doctors remain lower than in several other states despite the increment.

“This increment was much needed but the salaries are still lower than what is offered in other states,” said Aniket Mahato, one of the leading faces of the R G Kar protest. “The increase is something that we deserve, the focus should be on improving infrastructure and security.”

He said, “We talked (to the CM) about the infrastructure, the medicine problem, and the process of transfer of senior doctors. (But) we did not hear anything specific about policy changes to ensure a better healthcare system. How the overall medical services can be improved, the recruitment in paramedical, nursing, their salary structures were not discussed.”

A trainee doctor at a government hospital said the steps show that “Mamata Banerjee does not want to take any chance with doctors” before the Assembly elections.

Banerjee’s announcement has also come under fire from the Opposition, with the BJP alleging that the salary hikes were a “bribe” to shut up the doctors. “We are happy that you have increased the salaries of doctors. But there are other things about which the doctors protested. Their demands were about security. She (the CM) is just trying to bribe and shut the mouths of the doctors,” said BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul.

CPI(M) central committee member and former MP Sujan Chakraborty targeted the government for adopting a “seasonal approach” to addressing long-term problems and not doing anything concrete to resolve them.

“Had the R G Kar incident not happened, she (Banerjee) wouldn’t have thought of the hike. Our doctors are paid less than in most other states, so the hike was much needed. But why wasn’t it done before? What is being done to improve overall health infrastructure? She has done this to secure her votes,” Chakraborty said.

State Congress president Subhankar Sarkar said, “The Health Department requires a full-time Minister and a Minister of State. In the R G Kar case, they should have found out the source of the crime and that was the responsibility of the CM. Now, these steps are being taken a year before the elections but what is being done to ensure the security of women? There are still many unanswered questions (about the R G Kar case).”

Dismissing the Opposition parties’ criticism, TMC leader and Lok Sabha MP Saugata Roy said, “It is a welcome step, whether someone supports it or not that’s immaterial. It is definitely a substantial hike to please all sections of doctors, including juniors and seniors.”