Delhi: AIIMS docs wear helmets in support of striking Maharashtra residents doctors

Extending support to residents doctors in Mumbai, various residents doctors in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) are working with the helmets on. Doctors are wearing it as a safety measure after relatives of a deceased patient had beaten up a resident doctor in Mumbai.

“Instead of providing security to resident doctors at their workplace, the government is threatening them. We, resident doctors at AIIMS are forced to work with helmets in the emergency department as we don’t want to lose our vision and life. Prevention is better than cur,"said Dr Vijay Gurjar, president, Resident doctors’ Association of AIIMS.

He also said that no one is having sympathy towards the doctors who are regularly brutally beaten up. "There is no discussion on the compensation and instead steps are being taken to defame the profession,” Gurjar said. 

Over 4,000 resident doctors across Maharashtra have gone on mass leave, agitating against dangerous working conditions. The protest was sparked by an incident last week when the relatives of a deceased patient beat up a resident doctor at Mumbai's Sion Hospital.

The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) has also extended  its support to the doctors in Maharashtra. The association, which is an umbrella body of all the residents doctors in Delhi has decided to on mass leave if any action is taken against the doctors in Maharashtra.

“Many private hospital and clinics will also join the movement, if needed,” said a senior resident doctor from a private hospital.