Chief Secretary D K Tiwari on Saturday directed Ranchi Superintendent of Police to arrest the people responsible for the assault on doctors at Rinchi Hospital on Friday within the next 24 hours. Tiwari, according to a press communiqué from the State’s Public Relation Department, also asked the police to take necessary actions against cops in the concerned police station if they are found to be at fault in managing the situation.
“Nobody has the right to take law in their hands. If someone has a problem with medical facilities or approach of the doctor, he or she should follow the legal procedure,” Tiwari said.
Meanwhile, doctors across Jharkhand on Saturday worked wearing black badges as a mark of protest against the assault. They threatened to intensify their stir if the perpetrators were not arrested by Monday.
The development comes days after doctors across the country, including Jharkhand, went on a massive protest against assault on medicos at NRS Medical College Hospital in Kolkata.
On Friday, a 21-year-old man, Ashutosh Pandey was brought to Rinchi Hospital near Kathal More in Ranchi after he reportedly drowned in Patratu Dam. Doctors claim that Pandey had died of asphyxiation before being brought to the hospital. However, his attendants and about 100 locals went on a rampage soon after the news of his death. They vandalized property at the hospital and allegedly thrashed three doctors, who sustained severe injuries.
“We have had enough. There is a limit to tolerance. This is not the first instance where doctors were assaulted in Jharkhand. It is high time that we start taking actions against the perpetrators and do something to protect our doctors,” said Dr. Pradeep Kumar Singh, General Secretary, Jharkhand chapter of Indian Medical Association (IMA).
The Chief Secretary also met Jharkhand’s Director General of Police (DGP)K N Choubey and asked him to provide necessary security to doctors across the State in order to ensure that they are able to undertake their duties without any fear. He also directed the Superintendents of Police in all the 24 districts to provide necessary security to doctors.
Soon after the incident on Friday, doctors handed over a memorandum to Senior Superintendent of Police Anish Gupta demanding arrest of the assaulters within 48 hours. Later, they visited the office of IMA in Ranchi and unanimously decided to go on a protest from Saturday.
“If the assaulters are not arrested by Monday, we will go on a more intense protest. It may even affect emergency services in the state,” said Singh.
Jharkhand, doctors said, has witnessed several incidents of attacks by attendants on medicos in the recent past. The Medical Protection Act (MPA) is yet to be implemented here and doctors have been pressing for its implementation since years.
In February last year, a doctor was heckled by attendants of a patient at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) prompting medicos at the hospital to go on an indefinite strike. A couple of months later, in June, a nurse was thrashed by attendants of a patient who died in the hospital. This incident too caused uproar by RIMS staff. Similar incidents were also reported in Patliputra Medical College Hospital (PMCH) in Dhanbad and Mahatma Gandhi Medical College Hospital (MGMCH) in Jamshedpur.
Implementation of MPA has been a long pending demand of the Jharkhand chapter of the IMA. The Act has already been implemented in 18 states in India and IMA wants Jharkhand to be the 19th state to implement the MPA. The cabinet had approved the MPA in Jharkhand in 2017. Later, a select committee too gave a report on it. But it is yet to be passed by the assembly.
The Act mandates imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of Rs.50,000 for attacks on doctors, nurses and hospital establishments.