KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, Sept 20: Patients at the MGM Medical College Hospital are facing problems after junior doctors have gone on strike for the past 24 hours in protest of an assault meted out to one of them by a group of people over the death of a child on Monday night.
The junior doctors’ strike aggravated on Wednesday as the nursing staff have also joined the striking doctors in solidarity.
While abandoning their duty, the striking junior doctors have demanded the administration to enhance security for their lives during work at the medical college hospital and elsewhere as they are increasingly getting prone to assaults following the death of any patient.
A group of agitated persons had on Tuesday morning hit a junior doctor on duty after a seven-year-old girl died allegedly due to medical negligence.
Though those who attacked the doctor were arrested soon afterwards, but about 40 junior doctors had called a meeting and declared their decision for resorting to the strike.
As the assault on the junior doctor was carried out in the presence of the nurses, the nursing staff also joined the strike over the question of their security during duty.
The MGM Medical College Hospital is the only dependable government-run health hub in Kolhan. A large number of patients especially those from poor financial backgrounds come here for treatment from the twin districts of Singhbhum and also the Seraikela-Kharsawan every day.
Though on the medical treatment front, it is more or less alright, but the security system of the hospital is hopeless.
Ravindra Kumar, Superintendent, MGM Medical College Hospital, claimed “The OPD is functional and so are the wards as the strike is being observed by the junior doctors only. The senior doctors are attending to the patients as usual, but the situation is turning bad to worse after the nursing staff joined the strike this morning. ”
