Dikhyaa Mohanty 
After receiving assurances from the State administration that a complete policy ensuring a safe work environment will be issued shortly, junior physicians in Odisha who were protesting have decided to end their strike and return to work before midnight today. Representatives of the Junior Doctors Association (JDA) attended a meeting on Friday that was presided over by Commissioner cum Secretary Health and Family Welfare, during which the decision was made. While the JDA representative from SCB MCH, Cuttack was present in person, the JDA/interns and medical students from MKCG MCH, VIMSAR Burla, and PGIMER participated virtually.
The violent incident at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College was denounced at the conference. The Orissa Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention Of Violence And Damage To Property) Act, 2008 was appreciated by JDA representatives, who asked that action be taken to create a policy that would ensure a safe working environment in healthcare facilities. The reps further asked that the protest period be treated as a duty period because they continued to attend to emergency duty and patient care during that time.
“After a thorough conversation, it was agreed that the government will notify us shortly with a complete strategy to create a safe work environment, while also denouncing the horrific incident at R G Kar Medical College. Furthermore, the period of protest from August 15 to this day would be considered a duty period if the doctors and students who were participating in it returned to their usual tasks by today’s end of business. According to the meeting minutes, “With this guarantee, the doctors and students who are protesting pledged that they will return to work before the end of the day, which is 12.00 midnight of August 23, 2024.
