On Monday, around 200 resident doctors from Sion Hospital went on a flash strike after two of them were allegedly assaulted by a patient’s relatives.
Recent attacks on doctors by patients’ relatives have led the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) — the state body representing resident doctors in medical colleges — to draft a hospital security plan and present it to higher authorities, including the medical education minister and the civic chief. Meanwhile, doctors will be trained on how to deal with patients and their relatives.
On Monday, around 200 resident doctors from Sion Hospital went on a flash strike after two of them were allegedly assaulted by a patient’s relatives. Over 3,500 such doctors work in 18 medical colleges across the state.
According to senior doctors from JJ hospital, resident doctors are the backbone of state — and civic-run hospitals. During the last five years, on around 10-15 instances, doctors have been attacked by stressed-out relatives. Each time, doctors got an assurance that their security would be beefed up, but nothing happened.
Some months ago, doctors went on a strike after irate relatives assaulted their colleagues at JJ Hospital. At the time, the government had posted homeguards at the hospital gates to provide security to doctors. However, after things calmed down, the guards were withdrawn.
Dr Pankaj Nalawade, president, central MARD, says, “Going on a strike is a futile process. We have now decided to find out a more permanent solution and have decided to come up with a security plan, which is applicable to all medical colleges in the state. Our representatives have started gathering statistical data about how many security guards are deployed at hospitals, and how many posts are lying vacant. Once we have figured out the kind of action we need to put in place from the security point of view, we can work without worrying about being attacked or assaulted. We are making a report, which will be given to medical education minister Dr Vijay Kumar Gavit and city civic chief Subodh Kumar.”
Among the things recommended in the report will be to make sure that not too many relatives are allowed in the casualty, intensive care unit areas etc. “Many times, 10-15 relatives barge in and start instructing doctors on what they should be doing, which leads to an argument. That has to be stopped,” says Nalawade.
Dr Ravikant Singh, president of the NGO, Doctors For You, says, “It’s high time the government takes the issue of doctors’ security seriously. There’s no point in it waking up after five to six incidents every year where doctors are beaten up by political party workers or patients’ relatives.”
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