Parents of the striking postgraduate students joined them in the agitation on Tuesday, which students described as moral support.
Representatives of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and doctors from Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital joined the strike expressing solidarity with the students. Meanwhile, students said they would continue the protest on Wednesday as their demand to arrest the activists who barged into the Minto Hospital and assaulted a PG student remains unfulfilled.
OPD services at Victoria and Vani Vilas were affected as most of the PG students sat in protest. Hospital sources said patients’ footfall has gone down by 25%.
“We’re assuming that most patients are aware of the situation here and hence the numbers are low at the OPDs,” staff at Victoria Hospital said. A WhatsApp message screen shot from a doctor at the radiology department urging the students to continue the strike was doing the rounds.
The doctor, appointed a syndicate member and allegedly an associate of former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, said in the message: “Feeling unsafe in this environment where the government itself is supporting goons and pressurising the doctors to withdraw the case....Be Ready...”
Responding to the message, H Satish, Dean, BMCRI, said he was unaware of the issue.