Three days after resident doctors called off their strike following the Delhi Government’s assurance to provide adequate security in the city hospitals, six cases of assault on resident doctors were reported in the last 48 hours. Taking a serious note of the issue, the State Health Department deployed over 500 home guards in 17 State-run-hospitals and the Heath Minister asked the police officials to increase more police patrolling in and around the hospitals.Talking to The Pioneer, Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) president Dr Panjak Solanki said: “The night, we called off the strike, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) was assaulted at lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital and threatened by patient’s attendants even after he gave the best treatment to the patient. Another resident doctor was also assaulted at Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital on that night.”
Similar incidents were reported on Thursday at Bhagwan Mahavir Hospital, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital and Maharishi Valmiki Hospital, said Dr Solanki.While, the attack on the resident doctor took place in the presence of police personnel at Bhagwan Mahavir Hospital, Dr Solanki said. The aggrieved doctor has filed and FIR with the police, he added.In another such incident at Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, relatives of the patients attacked a doctor who insisted on seeing his patients on priority basis.
Beside, two cases of assault on doctors and nurses were reported at Maharishi Valmiki Hospital. “The drunken attendant of a patient abused and hit doctors and a nurse at the hospital,” said Solanki adding that police were informed about the attack.Meanwhile, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain ordered the deployment of 500 home guards in 17 major hospitals including lok Nayak, GB Pant, DDU, GTB hospitals.Jain also wrote a letter to Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi and lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung seeking their interventions in the issue. “We have written letters to the Police Commissioner and the lG on the serious issue and asked them to deploy more police personnel in and around hospitals for the safety of doctors.”