As the medical fraternity’s nationwide strike hit healthcare services and left patients and their relatives high and dry across States, the Supreme Court on Monday said it will hear on Tuesday a plea seeking safety and security of doctors in Government hospitals in the country.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the apex body of medical practitioners, had called for a three-day nationwide strike in protest against the assault on doctors in West Bengal allegedly by the relatives of a patient who died on June 10 at NRS Medical College Hospital in Kolkata.
A large number of patients and their relatives, caught unaware of the strike, were seen waiting outside various hospitals, appealing to authorities for help. In many Government and private hospitals across the country, out-patient departments (OPDs) remained closed and scheduled surgeries were postponed. However, emergency services remained operational.
Amid protests, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday said the Union Government will “revisit” the issue of drafting a Central law regarding the safety of medicos at healthcare facilities.
For its part, a vacation Bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Surya Kant of the SC agreed to list the matter for Tuesday after the counsel for the petitioner, advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, sought urgent hearing.
The petition has also sought directions to the Union Ministries of home affairs and health and the West Bengal Government to depute Government-appointed security personnel at all State-run hospitals to ensure safety and security of doctors.
Due to the protests, healthcare services have been badly disrupted and many people are dying because of absence of doctors, the plea said. It also sought directions to the Bengal Government to take the strictest legal and penal action against those who assaulted junior doctors at NRS Medical College Hospital in Kolkata.
Doctors in Tamil Nadu and Odisha formed human chains and wore black badges and helmets as they joined the strike while medical services were partially affected across Andhra Pradesh with doctors, both Government and private, boycotting non-emergency duties.
In the national capital, doctors at Government and a few private hospitals boycotted work and staged protests. Doctors at the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), who had earlier decided not to strike, too joined the stir. Members of several resident doctors’ associations took out marches on their campuses to lodge protest.
Similarly, over hundred doctors of the Goa Indian Medical Association (IMA) staged a protest march wearing black bands even as medics in Tripura and Agartala ceased work in state-hospital OPDs in solidarity.