Health services in private and government hospitals across Jharkhand were paralysed on Wednesday as a large number of registered doctors observed a token boycott of services in protest against repeated assaults on the medicos in the state.
Emergency services are exempted from the purview of the protest, said the Jharkhand Health Service Association (JHSA) and the Jharkhand chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), who have jointly called for the boycott.
The associations have demanded that the Medical Protection Act be implemented in the state and the Clinical Establishment Act be amended at the earliest for greater protection of the doctors.
The protest follows the assault of noted orthopaedic surgeon of Ranchi, Anchal Kumar, at his residence by unidentified miscreants on Monday.
The Sadar hospital and the outpatient department (OPD) of Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) in Ranchi wore a deserted look throughout the day because of the strike.
A senior doctor of Ranchi’s Sadar hospital, Ajit Kumar, said: “They (medicos) were on duty but the OPD, lab and ultrasound services were affected in the hospital. However, all kinds of emergency services remained unaffected.”
At RIMS, doctors and teachers loyal to the Teachers Association and Junior Doctors Association stayed away from duty forcing the OPD to remain closed for the day.
They, however, claimed that doctors attended indoor and emergency duties so that no patient suffered.
In Jamshedpur, teachers of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College and Hospital, doctors and medical officers of Sadar hospital, and medicos of private clinics and nursing homes took out a rally to the deputy commissioner’s office to lodge their protest.
Doctors of Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College and Hospital in Dhanbad boycotted OPD duty but attended to the patients in the emergency department.
The IMA state coordinator Ajay Kumar Singh claimed that about 14,000 registered doctors of private clinics, nursing homes, government health centres and hospitals including six medical colleges of the state took part in the protest and boycotted work on Wednesday.
JHSA secretary Thakur Mritunjay Kumar Singh said: “It is the state government’s responsibility to provide security to doctors. Ironically, neither the governor nor any health official contacted the doctors’ bodies over the issue”.
He alleged that seven doctors were assaulted or insulted in the last two months in different districts of Jharkhand such as Garhwa, Hazaribag, Lohardaga and Ranchi but no action was taken.
Former Jharkhand health minister Bhanu Pratap Sahi raised the matter of doctors’ protest in the Assembly during the day and said the government should intervene to resolve their issues.
Even though the government did not reply to Sahi in the House, state health minister Banna Gupta told reporters outside the House that government will talk to the doctors and resolve their concerns.
On the assault of the Ranchi surgeon, Gupta said he has asked the Ranchi senior superintendent of police to find the reason behind it and ensure stringent action in the case.