Healthcare services in State remained badly hit due to strike called by Government doctors. Though there were no reports of any casualty due to the strike; the 3-day strike which started on Wednesday is heading towards most impactful day on Friday with Jharkhand wing of Indian Medical Association (IMA) joining hands with Jharkhand Health Services Association (JHSA), the Government doctors’ body, on the day.
JHSA had called the strike to demand immediate enforcement of Medical Protection Act in the State. The demands also included amendments to Clinical Establishment Act, apart from appointment of regular doctors, which remained one of the oldest and most critical demands only gaining voices in recent past.
Though emergency services and post mortem were kept out of strike, hundreds of patients were found suffering in absence of proper healthcare services at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS). Similar scenes were reported from other parts of the State, including remote areas.
Jharkhand wing Secretary of IMA Dr Pradeep Kumar Singh came down heavily on a senior bureaucrat of the Health Department and said that the adamant official never appeared to understand the ground reality of the situations the doctors had been working in the State. “We are not demanding anything heavenly. Medical Protection Act has been in force in 18 states of the country,” said Singh. IMA is going to take part in this strike on Friday.
Jharkhand IMA Women’s Doctors’ wing president Dr Bharti Kashyap, who has been instrumental in raising the issue of Medical Protection Act and headed the Medical Protection Act Coordination Committee a couple of years ago said, “MPA is for progressive development of a hospital. It helps in saving the infrastructure of a hospital especially Government based like RIMS in times of violence created by some group of individuals. Unfortunately, successive Governments in Jharkhand have failed to understand its importance. ” “The struggle for MPA started in a consolidated way in July 2011. We had met the then Health Minister and gave him a proposed draft of Media Protection Bill. 10 social organisations gave support in office of Health Secretary. Also, we had met the CM in May 2013. It got approval of Governor during President’s Rule but soon the President Rule was over and struggle again began. We met the then Health Minister in November 2013 and later realised it was being circulated as act and it should have been a Bill. So the matter was stuck again,” Dr Kashyap added.
JHSA Secretary Vimlesh Kumar said that Government doctors in the Statewere treated miserably. “They have been asked to work for 12 hours to compensate for the shortage of manpower. It is a shameful situation that 3.5 crores of population remains dependent on little over 1,100 doctors as against requirement of little over 4,500 doctors” he said. Kumar added that the doctors were scheduled to offer mass resignation to the Chief Minister on October 15.
Kumar said that that it were only doctors who were at receiving end both from the government and from patients and their attendants. “Only around 800 doctors are actually available for on-ground duty. One doctor is holding multiple additional charges. We have been kept on assurance from government that effective action would be taken with respect to such demands. We have been forced to go on strike, in a way,” added Kumar.
However, Health Department officials kept themselves busy throughout the day preparing further course of action. All the efforts to get Government perspective remained unfruitful except a Joint Secretary level official who said that theGovernment was doing whatever it could to bring doctor fraternity on table.
