Indian Hospitals Hit As Doctors Strike To Protest Rape, Murder Of Medic

Hospitals and clinics across India turned away patients except for emergency cases on Saturday as medical professionals started a 24-hour shutdown in protest against the brutal rape and murder of a doctor in the eastern city of Kolkata, Subrata Nag Choudhary and Jatindra Dash reported for Reuters.

A 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and murdered last week inside the medical college in Kolkata where she worked, triggering nationwide protests among doctors. I Image: Indian Medical Association Facebook

More than one million doctors were expected to join the strike, paralyzing medical services across the world's most populous nation. Hospitals said faculty staff from medical colleges had been pressed into service for emergency cases.

The strike, which began at 6 a.m. (0030 GMT), cut off access to elective medical procedures and outpatient consultations, according to a statement by the Indian Medical Association.

A 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and murdered last week inside the medical college in Kolkata where she worked, triggering nationwide protests among doctors and drawing parallels to the notorious gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012.

Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, which includes Kolkata, has backed the protests across the state, demanding the investigation be fast-tracked and the guilty be punished in the strongest way possible.

Many private clinics and diagnostic centers were closed in Kolkata on Saturday.

Hospitals and clinics in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Guwahati in Assam, Chennai in Tamil Nadu, and other cities joined the strike, set to be one of the largest shutdowns of hospital services in recent memory.

Saurabh Sharma, Sumit Khanna, Tora Agarwala, and Phyllis Xu also contributed additional reporting for Reuters.