MARD wants firearms licences for doctors

Maharashtra Resident Doctors' Assciation (MARD) has written a letter to chief minister Devendra Fadanvis stating that resident doctors need firearm licences for self-protection. The move came after a patient's relative assaulted a resident doctor early on Friday morning at Government Medical College, Nanded.

Dr Nihal Khan, the junior resident doctor who was assaulted, is a first-year student who's working in the hospital's casualty ward. Three relatives of the patient concerned visited the casualty ward early on Friday morning. They had a verbal argument there with the resident doctors, which subsequently turned into a physical fight. One of the patient's relatives assaulted Khan and another doctor, after which security personnel were forced to intervene.

Last year, 33 resident doctors had been beaten up across the state and this is the seventh such incident this year. In order to protest against the latest incident, MARD wrote a letter to the chief minister and one of the points in it was a request for the issuance of firearm licences for the doctors. MARD has also demanded the introduction of a pass system and eight years' imprisonment for patients' kin who assault doctors.

“How many times must resident doctors be assaulted by a patient's relatives? This time, we want justice. We get assurances all the time from the government that our security cover will increase, but nothing is happening,” said Dr Sagar Mundada, president, Central MARD.