About Us

The Association of Health Service Doctors, the largest association of doctors in state-run medical facilities in West Bengal, on Sunday called for constituting a team of volunteers in every locality to help people as the COVID-19 situation is taking an “alarming turn”.

Association General Secretary Manas Gumta said in a statement that due to “lack of proper planning by the state government on public health issue, the contagion is spreading and has triggered panic among the general public who are clueless about how to get medical treatment, where to get a bed, how to get an ambulance on their own.”

“While the state health department is washing its hands off by suggesting asymptomatic or patients with lower symptoms to stay at home, it is silent on the crucial issue about their getting proper medical treatment and in case their condition worsens who will take them to the right place taking into account the stigma associated with the disease,” the statement by the left leaning health service doctors’ body said.

It said that many patients staying at home are finding it hard to get an ambulance at the right time.

The association said, “we call upon everyone to form a team of volunteers in each locality to come to the aid of residents facing medical emergency which can be either due to COVID-19 or even serious non covid cases which are also under serious stress.” The statement said ‘ambulance raj’ is prevailing in the state alluding to incidents of private ambulances charging steep fare to take COVID-19 patients or suspects to hospitals and urged people to be on guard and be in touch with the local and state administration if required.

Assuring “80 per cent of COVID-19 cases get cured by general treatment,” Gumta urged people not to get panicky but take all necessary precautions.

A brief history of our Association

Our association was formed on a rainy afternoon of 24th June, 1984 in a hall convention at Moulali Yuva Kendra. Behind the formation of any organization there are certain developments in the backdrop which the members of next generation may not be aware about, but this context is very much relevant in taking up future movements and guidance.

In 1983 our state experienced a series of movements by junior doctors which started with the justified demand of stipend hike but gradually the leadership opted for undemocratic forms and formed an unholy nexus with the a section of leadership of Health Service Association and tried their best to jeopardize the government health services. The then leadership of HSA called for an indefinite cease-work without taking into cognizance the opinions of general members. In a general body meeting they plan fully put obstacles to voice any dissent opinion, put false statements regarding their discussions with the state government . Senior members like Dr. Bhaskar Roychoudhury, Dr. Abirlal Mukherjee were not allowed to express their views and then unconstitutionaly expelled five central council members, Dr. Goutam Majumdar, Dr. Trishitananda Roy, Dr. Biplab Acharya, Dr. Amit Pan and Dr. Pradyot Sur representing dissident voice.

In this situation some senior and junior service doctors realized that there is no other alternative but to form a separate organization for service doctors. It was a painful decision but that was taken to defend the right for the service doctors to organize them in a democratic way to voice their demands. A preparatory committee was formed under the leadership of Dr. Bhaskar Roychoudhury, Dr. Abirlal Mukherjee, Dr. Ramendranath Kundu, Dr. Barendra Nath Nag, Dr. R Devanath, Dr. Brain Roychoudhury, Dr. Pranab Bhowmick and others. After a prolonged dialogue with service doctors throughout the state, 651 members were enrolled in the preparatory committee and a convention was held in Moulali Yuva Kendra on 24th June, 1984 in presence of the then Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and Association of Health Service Doctors was formed.

In this context, two incidents need to be mentioned. When our association is on preparatory stage, a section of print media made a false propaganda that the new association is going to be formed by “Ad-hoc” doctors who were recruited during the turmoil period of 1983 when HAS called for a total indefinite cease work in all government hospitals. It was totally baseless as in the 651 member preparatory committee there was not a single ad-hoc doctor. The second one was the doctors of Burwan branch of HSA decided to remain within HAS to persuade the leadership for democratic functioning, but they also faced similar experiences and decided to join newly formed AHSD en mass in 1985. Since its foundation, the leadership of AHSD has consciously provided all its efforts for upholding the spirit of Science, Service and Society in all its organisational activities and remained loyal to the interests of its members as well as to upheld the interests of common people to get the benefits of government health care at its best form. For promoting the scientific approach to different public health problems, for safeguarding the common interests of our people to access quality health care and for protecting the interests of our members in rendering their services for the society we pledge to offer our best and sincere efforts in days to come as we have done during the past 38 years.