E-Paper
Resident doctors of Rajasthan government medical colleges on indefinite strike protesting police action
Resident doctors of all seven government medical colleges in Rajasthan are on strike after police started an investigation on a complaint of a lady who in her FIR on November 13 complained that a doctor on duty attempted to molest her while she was admitted in labour room for delivery.
Resident doctors of all the seven government medical colleges in Rajasthan went on an indefinite strike from Wednesday protesting an incident at Zenana Hospital attached to Ajmer’s Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College.
Jaipur Association of Resident Doctors (JARD) president Dr Vijay Singh Chaudhary said, “Police in Ajmer had barged into the labour room inquiring about the duty officer against whom an FIR was lodged. They wore shoes inside the room and even humiliated a doctor when stopped. This is sheer violation of protocols.”
Protesting this incident, resident doctors of JLN Medical College went on strike from Saturday and extending support to them doctors of other medical colleges in the state, including resident doctors of Sawai Man Singh Medical College in Jaipur went on strike from Wednesday. The strike will continue till the matter is resolved, Dr Chaudhary added.
He further said there are around 2,500 resident doctors in seven government medical colleges in the state of which around 1,400-1,500 are from SMS medical college and its attached hospitals in Jaipur. The government medical colleges are in Jaipur, Ajmer, Kota, Udaipur, Bikaner, Jodhpur and Jhalawar.
SMS Medical College principal Dr Sudhir Bhandari said the outpatient department (OPD) had a rush of around 10,000 patients on Wednesday who were attended by senior faculty members and medical officers. “We have a strong backup of faculty members and medical officers and so resident doctors going on strike did not make much difference. The services to patients at OPD and inpatient department (IPD) were done the same way as on other days,” he added.
Dr Bhandari said talks are on with the resident doctors and they may join the duty anytime. With the resident doctors on strike, medical officers and senior faculty members had to take up extra stress to ensure service to patients is not affected, he said.
Explaining about the incident, Ajmer resident doctors association president, Dr. Rajendra Singh Lamror said, police barged into the labour room and misbehaved with doctors on duty. Overstepping its jurisdiction, police entered into out of bound area (labour room) threatening doctors to reveal the names of doctors on duty on November 13, he said.
Alleging misbehaviour by police in Zenana hospital, resident doctors of JLN Medical College and its attached hospitals are on strike for the last four days from Saturday.
The doctors are on strike after police started an investigation on a complaint of a lady who in her FIR on November 13 complained that a doctor on duty attempted to molest her while she was admitted in labour room for delivery.
Christian Ganj police station SHO Ravindra Kumar said after the FIR, they had gone to make an inquiry of the doctor on duty who tried to molest the lady in the labour room. “We had gone to the labour room to talk to the senior-most doctor of the hospital, as hospital superintendent was on leave that day, to know the names of the doctors on duty on Tuesday”, said Kumar. The resident doctors are doing this to evade inquiry against their fellow doctor, he added.
