Adamant on their demands for registration of criminal case against attackers of a doctor besides ample arrangements for safety and security of doctors on duty at casualty ward of the PGIMS, the resident and post graduate (PG) doctors of the State’s premier medical institute remained on strike for the second day on Sunday.
The protesting doctors under the aegis of Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) not only took out a ‘shav yatra’ of Director of PGIMS but also burnt his effigy in front of his house in the medical campus here. They also shouted anti-director slogans for over half an hour there. Dr Jasbir Parmar, spokesman of the RDA, told ‘The Pioneer’ that they would not call off their strike until their demands were met as footage of CCTV cameras had confirmed that the doctor on duty was treating the woman patient seriously when he was attacked by her attendants without any reason.
“We are raising all justified demands hence the PGIMS authorities should come forward to accept them but the authorities have not contacted us in this regard even after 48 hours of our strike,” said Parmar, adding that they had been carrying out the agitation just to get justice for their colleague. A PG doctor- Ansul- on duty was attacked at casualty ward on Friday night when he was treating a woman patient who was brought here in a critical condition after she consumed some poisonous substance.
On the other hand, senior doctors of the PGIMS, including Director Chand Singh Dhull, Registrar Sarla Hooda, Medical Superintendent (MS) Ashok Chauhan, Ranbir Singh Dahiya and Geeta Gathwala, were seen treating the patients in absence of resident and PG doctors late on Saturday night. “Senior doctors are working round-the-clock in the casualty ward to help the patients. Sincere efforts are also being made to persuade the protesting doctors for getting the strike ended,” said a senior doctor.
Meanwhile, criticizing the incident of assault on a PG doctor by attendants of a patient in PGIMS Rohtak, Haryana State Medical Teachers’ Association (HSMTA) has demanded the PGIMS authorities to ensure the safety of the doctors working in the casualty ward. Dr Rohtash Kumar Yadav, chief of the HSMTA, said frequent incidents of violence in casualty ward of PGIMS had raised concern over the status of safety and security of doctors on duty hence there was an urgent need to take step to curb such incident.
“The PGIMS authorities should immediately take remedial measures and protect the working staff from these violent incidents. Genuine demands of protesting Resident doctors should be looked into to resolve the issue,” Yadav maintained.