In solidarity with the junior doctors of West Bengal, their colleagues at government hospitals in Jharkhand went on a daylong strike, affecting the functioning of the Outdoor Patient Department (OPD) in all the three leading hospitals here.
Carrying placards and banners, the medicos staged a protest at the OPD of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) since 9am on Friday. After a daylong protest, they took to the streets by evening and raised slogans condemning the attack on medicos in West Bengal and seeking protection for the doctors.
“We are doctors; we can save life, but we cannot give life. People need to understand this,” said a medico at RIMS. The placards condemned the attacks on medicos in India and sought protection for doctors. The doctors marched on the campus of RIMS on Friday carrying placards with messages such as “Don’t let white coat turn red” and “Stop violence against doctors.”
Junior doctors in West Bengal are on strike since Tuesday in protest of an attack on two of their colleagues at NRS Medical College and Hospital Kolkata. The protest has snowballed into a nationwide movement of doctors affecting work at hospitals in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Patna and several other cities.
In Jharkhand, however, the protest seemed strongest in the State capital. The Mahatma Gandhi Medical College Hospital (MGMCH) in Jamshedpur and Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) in Dhanbad witnessed minor effects of the strike. The OPDs in the two hospitals started functioning after 11am on Friday, sources said.
“We have been demanding Medical Protection Act (MPA) in Jharkhand since a long time, but the Government has left our demands unheeded. Given the situation in the country and the frequent incidents of attacks on doctors, we think that the implementation of the Act is paramount,” said Dr. Ajit Kumar, president of Junior Doctors’ Association at RIMS.
The Act mandates imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of Rs 50,000 for attacks on doctors, nurses and hospital establishments. There have been several incidents of attacks on doctors at RIMS too in the past. In February last year, a doctor was heckled by attendants of a patient at 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.
Implementation of MPA has been a long pending demand of the Jharkhand chapter of the Indian Medical Association (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,” said Dr. Pradeep Kumar Singh, General Secretary, of IMA’s Jharkhand chapter.