JJ Hosp assault: Strike enters third day; Sion and KEM docs extend support
The strike called by the resident doctors of state-run JJ Hospital entered its third day on Monday after two of their colleagues were assaulted following death of a patient. Monday saw several doctors from the civic-run Sion and KEM Hospital extended their support to their JJ colleagues. While the resident doctors at Sion Hospital went on a token one-day strike on Monday to show solidarity, doctors at KEM hospital participated in a black ribbon protest.
Around 400 resident doctors of JJ Hospital have placed three demands before the administration. According to the doctors, they will not call off their strike until their demands are fulfilled. The doctors have demanded better security facilities for the staff and the doctors, an emergency alarm system (EAS) and stocks of medicine and instruments.
The need for EAS was proposed two years ago but hasn’t been installed yet. “We demand three things from the administration security, Emergency Alarm System and stocks for medicines and instruments needed for practice. There are times when we have to return a patient due to the lack of medicines. We don’t want that to happen hereafter. Also if the demands are not met we will continue this strike until the administration realises our concerns,” said Dr Sumit Aggarwal, resident doctor and representative.
Sumit added, “No patient has been returned even during the strike, The patients are being treated and taken care of. We are trying our best that this protest does not affect the patients. Our protest is not only for the doctors but also the patients so are not neglecting any of them.”
“It’s not that there isn’t any security in the hospital, there is, but, that is of completely no use. There is security at gate no 9, where there is hardly any need. The main need of the security is inside the hospital where the doctors sometimes have to deal with the distressed relatives of the patients. We need to keep the doctors safe from all these kind of incidents,” said Dr Ganesh Nilpetrewar.
The patients suffering from major health issues are being treated by senior doctors and professors, as their condition needs immediate action. But there are other patients who are being told to return after a few days as their issues were relatively not that severe, according to the doctors.
“I am suffering from shooting pains in my head and I came here to JJ from Jalgaon, Chopda, only to be told to return after 3 days. The doctors just gave me prescriptions to be purchased from medical store,” said a patient. The patients do acknowledge that thrashing the doctors was wrong and due to that mishap some of the other patients have to suffer.
In a meeting on Monday, the administration promised to fulfill the demands of the doctors but nothing was given in writing. Due to which the doctors have decided to continue their protest. The doctors at the JJ are blaming the administration for the poor conduct of patients’ kins towards the doctors and have demanded quick action on their pleas.
“If the strike gets prolonged, we will run a separate Out-Patient Department (OPD) for patients,” spokesperson of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) Amol Hekare said.