Medicos manhandling that caused the Rajasthan resident doctors to go on a strike, has now taken a different turn. The doctors, who raised their voices against the jostling of a fellow doctor by the relatives of a patient in Bikaner, have agreed to give a rest to the strike provided the State Government increases the security in the wards of the hospital.
Patient dies relatives get aggressive
On the September 12th a patient during treatment, had succumbed to his medical condition, at the PBM hospital in Bikaner. His agitated relatives had thrashed the resident doctors on duty. The family members had gone ahead to file some complaints against the doctors on duty.
As a retaliation to this doctors from various medical colleges from Bikaner, Jaipur, Kota, Udaipur and Jodhpur, went on strike. Even the doctors from the government medical college from Ajmer decided to join in the agitation to protest against this manhandling of the resident medicos.
The mauled doctors got support from many areas and According to Dr Ajay Choudhary, the All Rajasthan in Service Doctors Association or the ARISDA organizing secretary, “The doctors cannot work in this situation when they are attacked and manhandled. We are in support of the resident doctors.”
Doctors call a strike
The work of the doctors reached to a standstill and the medical care and health care facilities stopped, even the senior doctors laid down their work for about 2 hours. Routine checkups and Operation schedules were altered till corrective action was taken.
The general secretary of Jaipur Association of Resident Doctors, Mr. Surendra Bhatal had stated that “We are against any kind of violence against doctors, so we have decided to go on strike, until the accused in Bikaner are arrested.”
It was only after the State Government promised the doctors to take back the criminal cases framed against the resident doctors working at Bikaner’s PBM hospital that the doctors agreed to get back to their duties in the hospital. Another demand put forth by the doctors was to arrest all those relatives of the patient who had allegedly thrashed the doctors on duty at that time before they agreed to resume work. This demand was confirmed by the general secretary of Jaipur Association of Resident Doctors, Mr. Surendra Bhatal.
According to Ajeet Singh, the spokesman at the SMS Medical Hospital, the government has guaranteed resident doctors of a better infrastructure, and increasing the security arrangements in the wards by hiring more private guards. They also assure “better facilities to patients and enacting of existing act for prevention of unlawful activities inside the hospitals” said Ajeet Singh.
