Docs, admn on warpath

DOCTORS AT the BRD Medical College here have taken umbrage to the alleged objectionable remarks passed by additional commissioner Jaswant Singh against the community. In a meeting of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics held here at MRI center, child specialists demanded stringent action against the additional commissioner.

DOCTORS AT the BRD Medical College here have taken umbrage to the alleged objectionable remarks passed by additional commissioner Jaswant Singh against the community. In a meeting of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics held here at MRI center, child specialists demanded stringent action against the additional commissioner. They decided that a delegation of the academy would handover a memorandum to the chief secretary, demanding dismissal of the additional commissioner.

HT Image

In its three-hour meeting, the doctors’ community expressed concern over the languages used by Singh against the physicians, particularly child specialists, during his visit to the medical college on July 26. In the meeting an audio tape with Singh’s voice was played which added fuel to the fire. MLC Dr YD Singh and local MLA Dr RMD Agrawal said they would raise the issue in the Assembly session and they would present the tape to buttress their point. Interestingly, Dr Agrawal and Dr Singh are child specialists.

It is to be noted that the administration has written a letter, directing principal of the medical college, Dr OP Singh, to restrain the doctors issuing statements regarding spread of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in the region. Administrative officers are of the view that fresh cases being brough to the hospital are not that of JE but encephalitis. They feel that the remarks passed by child specialists regarding JE would raise doubts against the much hyped mass anti-JE vaccination carried out in May this year.

Sources said that in the tape additional commissioner was heard saying, “We have taken such stringent action that child specialists would not take the name of JE in future.” Head of department of Paediatrics Dr RK Rathi, Dr Naresh Agrawal, Dr VV Gupta, Dr Nandini Ghosh, Dr AB Pathak and others expressed their views and said it was time to show solidarity to save the pride of the doctors’ community.