In Bhopal, junior doctors of Hamidia Hospital set up a parallel OPD outside the main building, where patients were attended. Doctors are protesting across the country against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata on August 8.
The Junior Doctors Association (JUDA) said that we have withdrawn the strike respecting the High Court's order. But, we will continue our protest by running a parallel OPD. Earlier on Monday, junior doctors had protested against the Kolkata incident by taking out a bike rally.
JUDA spokesperson Kuldeep Gupta said that after the court's order, junior doctors have returned to work, and we are attending patients by running our parallel OPD. If the patient is in an emergency condition, we are referring to specialist doctors from all departments present here.
More than 50 doctors are doing OPD. Our priority was earlier, is still there and will remain so in future that the patient does not suffer any kind of harm.
We are constantly seeing that we are upset with the indifferent attitude of the Kolkata government, and are also demanding the Central Doctor Protection Act.
Junior doctors ended the strike after the order of the High Court in Madhya Pradesh. Junior doctors had stopped work from 12 midnight on August 15. About 46 hours later, they announced the end of the strike. Actually, on August 9, a trainee doctor was raped and murdered in Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College. Violence took place in the same hospital late on the night of 14 August, after which IMA decided to protest across the country.
Earlier on August 17 afternoon, the High Court had ordered the junior doctors to end the strike. The court said that they should withdraw their strike by August 20. The bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Sach Deva and Justice Vinay Saraf said that this method of strike is not right at all. If someone is dying, will you give them medicine after two days? The High Court had advised the doctors to return to work.
Meanwhile, after the case of rape and murder of a junior doctor in Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued an advisory for all the hospitals in the country, in which it has been said that security arrangements in hospitals should be tightened further. Keeping in mind the security challenges in government hospitals, instructions have been issued to take several steps.
