City-based doctors on Wednesday hit the streets to protest against the recent abduction and murder of their colleague in Gumla as State-owned health hub MGM Medical College and Hospital’s OPD remained shut along with private nursing homes and clinics. A condolence meeting was held in which doctors from Tata Main Hospital also participated.
The condolence service which was attended by almost all the doctors at Tata Main Hospital from noon lasted for around an hour. Doctors from different private centres, nursing homes, MGM Medical College and Hospital, and Government hospitals participated in the march.
About 250 doctors, including around 50 junior doctors, then took out a rally from MGM campus to district collectorate and submitted a memorandum addressed to State Chief Minister Raghubar Das through the East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Amitabh Kaushal.
Strongly condemning the growing acts of violence against doctors in the State, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has sought intervention from the Government to provide security cover to the medical fraternity.
“We are here to express our concern over the incident. The rally was called by Indian Medical Association (state unit) and Jharkhand State Health Services Association (JSHSA) and witnessed overwhelming response,” said IMA district president RP Thakur.
The demands raised in the memorandum include arresting and punishment of the culprits involved in the murder of the doctors, implementation of the Medical Protection Act in the State, payment of adequate compensation for the deceased’s family and giving of service to any of the family members of the deceased.
Meanwhile, Md Parvez of Mango who was suffering from high fever had come for taking medicines from the OPD unit of MGM Medical College and Hospital. However not finding any doctors he had to return home after spending two hours at the OPD after being informed by others that the doctors were on agitation.
JSHSA district secretary Sahir Pall said the protest was successful that they are waiting for directives of the state officials at Ranchi for future course of agitation and hoped that health services at government centres would return to normalcy from tomorrow.
Another doctor said that in the last few years the city too has witnessed several such incidents of crime. Sometimes the aggrieved family members, relatives and acquaintances of the deceased patients tend to misbehave with the doctor on duty for his/her alleged negligence.