SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, May 18: Jharkhand Health Services Association (JHSA), the frontal organization of government doctors (medical officers), has called an emergency meeting at Ranchi today evening.
The meeting has been called to decide the course of action over the assault of two medicos in Deoghar Sadar Hospital on Tuesday.
JHSA state secretary Bimlesh Kumar Singh said that the organization (government doctors of state body) has taken Tuesday’s Deoghar Sadar hospital’s incident seriously. So emergent meeting has been called at Ranchi to finalize the action.
“Medical officers may go on indefinite strike from today’s evening in protest of the incident”, said JHSA secretary Dr Bimlesh Kumar Singh.
JHSA is on boil after two doctors Dr Kundan in the morning and Dr Diwakar Paswan in the afternoon were beaten by the attendants of a patient at Deoghar Sadar hospital on Tuesday.
Health minister directs DC, SP for immediate action
On being informed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) state secretary Dr Pradip Kumar Singh about the incident, Jharkhand Health Minister Banna Gupta talked with Deoghar Deputy Commissioner Manjunath Bhajantri and Superintendent of Police Subhash Chandra Jat on Tuesday evening and directed them to take immediate action against the assaulters.
“Continuous assault incidents on doctors in the state have run out the patience of medicos. In February, a doctor was assaulted in Koderma. In March, a lady doctor was kidnapped in Latehar and doctors of Guru Kripa Nursing Home in Ramgarh were thrashed. In April, IMA Dhanbad secretary Dr Sushil Kumar was attacked and now two doctors have been assaulted in Deoghar. But no strong step has been taken yet,” said Dr Pradip Kumar Singh.
The IMA secretary said that it is the responsibility of the state government to provide a safe environment for doctors so that they could provide the best possible treatment to patients. ”How could government expect good services from doctors when they would be under pressure due to fear of attack,” quipped Dr Singh.
Dr Pradip Kumar Singh said that it is unfortunate that such an incident occurred with doctors on duty in a government institution and no action has been taken against the assaulters even after 12 hours. He said only the people of the state would suffer from such an incident.
He said had the state government implemented MPA, such an incident would not have occurred.
Meanwhile, the strike of government and private doctors in Deoghar continued till Wednesday morning. Deoghar IMA secretary Dr Gaurishankar said that they were waiting for a response from the DC and SP.
“Last evening, the SDM talked with us but he neither provided security nor arrested the assaulter. In this condition, how would doctors treat the patients? SDPO of course came but he returned after seeing local MLA Narayan Das talking with doctors,” said Dr Gaurishankar.
Deoghar IMA secretary said that a woman leader, who is also contesting the Mukhiya election, and her family members assaulted doctors but she has not been arrested.
