SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Sept 23: The medicos bodies of Jharkhand have said that after the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Hospital (MGMMCH) Jamshedpur incident, now chief minister Hemant Soren and health minister Banna Gupta must realize the need of Medical Protection Act (MPA) in Jharkhand
Indian Medical Association (IMA) state secretary Dr Pradip Kumar Singh said that such an incident would not have occurred had the government passed Medical Protection Act. “The chief minister and the health minister would have to realize importance of the MPA and get it passed in the next session of the assembly,” he said.
The IMA secretary expressed surprise that when 23 states have adopted the Act then what is the problem in Jharkhand. “That is why no doctor and teacher comes to Jharkhand,” he said.
IMA president Dr AK Singh said that it is a matter of concern that Dr Kamlesh Oraon was severely injured by attendants of a patient but the security was seen nowhere in hospital. “It looks strange that when the SDM is administrator of MGMMCH, a doctor was assaulted and the accused walked away easily,” he said.
Tribal Medical Association (TMA) president Dr Nishit Ekka while demanding a full protection for doctors in the state, said that in fact the present draft of Medical Protection Act is for protection of only patients and not doctors. “It must be for protection of medicos, health centres and health staff for curbing MGMMCH Jamshedpur like incident,” he added.
Jharkhand Health Service Association (JHSA) president Dr PP Shah thanked all the medicos’ bodies for supporting the work boycott call on Friday and said that unity of doctors ensured success of the stir.
The JHSA secretary said that the MGMMCH incident shocked all doctors of the state prompting them to go on work boycott. He thanked the health minister for taking quick action in the incident and the medicos bodies called off the strike in a few hours.
Dr RS Das, IMA vice-president ( state headquarter), said the work boycott call was enough message for the government that if doctors go on strike, health services would be affected and thousands of patients will be deprived of getting treatment.
IMA state coordinator Dr Bimlesh Kumar Singh said the health minister played a major role in taking the MPA Bill in the assembly. “Now, we hope he would realize the need of the hour and get it passed in the next session,” he added.
