Doctors stage a nationwide strike and protest to demanding justice for the woman PG trainee doctor who was found raped and murdered in West Bengal, at Kartavya Path in New Delhi on August 16, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has announced a 24-hour withdrawal of health services by all doctors of modern medicine across the country, irrespective of the sector and place of work. Emergency and casualty departments will function but no outpatient services and elective surgeries will be available, it said. The withdrawal of services is from 6 a.m. on Saturday (August 17, 2024) to 6 a.m. on Sunday (August 18, 2024).
Doctors are protesting against the rape and murder of a young doctor at the R.G. Kar Hospital in Kolkata on August 9. In a release issued on Friday (August 16, 2024), the IMA said that the incident has brought to fore the two dimensions of violence in the hospital – one, a crime of barbaric scale due to the lack of safe spaces for women and the other, the hooliganism that followed due to the lack of an organised security protocol.
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“The crime and the vandalism have shocked the conscience of the nation. Today, both the medical fraternity and the nation are victims,’’ said IMA national president R.V. Asokan.
The IMA said that a reluctance to acknowledge the violence on doctors and hospitals has to change at the policy level. In a list of demands submitted to the Central government, doctors have sought that security protocols of all hospitals should be no less than an airport and that healthcare centres should be declared as safe zones with mandatory security arrangements, including CCTVs and deployment of personnel.
“The 36-hour duty shift that the victim was in and the lack of safe spaces to rest warrant a thorough overhaul of the working and living conditions of the resident doctors,’’ the IMA stressed.
Dr. Asokan said that doctors were also seeking meticulous and professional investigation of the crime and rendering of justice. “We also want proper identification of those who vandalised the hospital and punishment. Appropriate and dignified compensation should be given to the bereaved family.’’
Although health is a state subject, the IMA has demanded that a uniform central law be brought in for the protection of healthcare workers while on duty.
Delhi Medical Association president-elect Girish Tyagi said, “This is a very shameful incident and we stand with the victim and her family. We are with the resident doctors as they are not getting the proper working conditions. In case their demands are not addressed in the next phase of the strike, emergency services will also be shut down.”
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‘File institutional FIR within six hours’
Meanwhile, the Central government on Friday said that “in the event of any violence against any healthcare worker while on duty, the head of institution shall be responsible for filing an institutional FIR within a maximum of six hours of the incident.’’
The office memorandum by the Director General of Health Services Atul Goel was issued to directors and medical superintendents of Central government hospitals, including AIIMS, and principals of all medical colleges across the country.
The government noted that the order was issued in view of the fact that violence had become common against doctors and other healthcare staff in government hospitals. “A number of health workers suffer physical violence during the course of their duty. Many are threatened or exposed to verbal aggression. Most of this violence is done by either the patient or the patient’s attendants,’’ it said.