Over 12k doctors announce strike across Jharkhand after medico assaulted
Dr. Kamalesh Oraon of the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Hospital (MGMMCH), was allegedly beaten following the death of a minor girl during treatment late Monday night.
Over 12,000 government and private doctors have announced an indefinite strike across Jharkhand from 6 am on Friday, alleging failure on the part of the Jamshedpur Police to arrest the main accused in the recent assault on a junior doctor, people familiar with the developments said on Thursday.
Dr. Kamalesh Oraon of the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Hospital (MGMMCH), was allegedly beaten following the death of a minor girl during treatment late Monday night.
Junior doctors and nursing staff have been on strike at MGMMCH for the past three days.
On Thursday evening, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Jharkhand chapter and Jharkhand State Health Services Association (JSHSA) made an official announcement regarding the statewide strike.
“We have duly sent the notification for an indefinite joint strike by the IMA-Jharkhand and JSHSA to the state health secretary, Arun Kumar Singh, RIMS director Dr RK Gupta, all the DCs, SPs, and civil surgeons in the state. The video of the brutal beating of a doctor in MGMMCH has gone viral, and the perpetrators have been identified. But no effective action has been taken yet. Doctors across the state are angry and clueless about their security and safety. The Medical Protection Act has been implemented in 23 states, including West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh, but it’s beyond understanding as to why not in Jharkhand,” Dr Pradip Kumar Singh, IMA-Jharkhand secretary, told HT on Thursday.
Dr Singh said they were more concerned about thousands of poor patients who have to bear the problems in the wake of such incidents. “Such attacks break the morale of the doctors, and it’s not a stray incident in Jamshedpur; rather, it’s happening in every district. Our strike, however, will not affect the emergency services,” added Dr. Singh.
IMA-Jamshedpur secretary Dr Saurabh Chaudhary said all the doctors, both government and private, in hospitals and clinics would boycott work from 6 a.m. on Friday until the perpetrators are arrested.
“The perpetrators are clearly visible, but none of the main accused has been arrested yet. Rural SP Rishabh Garg told us that their teams are raiding in three districts. As soon as we get confirmation from the police of the culprits getting arrested, we will call off our strike. We also demand a permanent police picket at MGMMCH,” Dr Chaudhary added.
Asked about a lady home guard filing a police complaint at Sakchi police station on Thursday against striking junior doctors for misbehaving and making casteist slurs, Dr Chaudhary said this was baseless and a ploy to divert the issue. “Our only issue is the safety and security of both doctors and patients.”
MGMMCH principal Dr. KN Singh and superintendent Dr Ravindra Kumar supported the strike and shared the platform with junior doctors and nursing staff.
“All our faculty members are on duty, but we are in solidarity with the striking doctors, IMA, and JSHSA. Emergency services won’t be affected, but doctors do need security and a conducive atmosphere to treat the patients,” said Dr KN Singh.
Dr. Ravindra Kumar said they have sent a request for a police picket to the administration.
Rural superintendent of police (SP) Rishabh Garg told the IMA and JSHSA delegation on Wednesday that they have arrested eight suspects. However, doctors claimed that none of the culprits visible in the video beating the doctors have been arrested yet.
State health minister Banna Gupta gave Jamshedpur SSP Kishor Kaushal 12 hours to arrest the culprits in a tele-video conference with the SSP, IMA and JSHSA delegation on Wednesday.