Nationwide Doctors’ Strike: The Indian Medical Association has announced a strike on August 17 in all small and big hospitals across the country. IMA National President RV Ashokan said that during this time the doctors will be on strike for 24 hours. This will start at 6 am and will continue till 6 am the next day. During this time emergency services will remain operational, but other services including OPD will remain closed.
1- IMA National President RV Ashokan said that doctors across the country are angry against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The girl with whom this incident happened was the only child of a middle-class family. Not a single person carried out this incident, but many people were involved in it. I do not have words to describe the way she was murdered.
2- The IMA president said that this is a crime against humanity. This is related to the issue of safety of women at workplaces. Doctors and nurses are worried that they are not safe in the hospital, their family members are also worried. I am waiting for the CBI investigation report.
3- Terming the Health Ministry’s decision to set up a committee to deliberate on a central law to protect healthcare workers as too little and too late, IMA chief Dr RV Ashokan said a draft bill was prepared in 2019 after consultations with stakeholders but it never went to Parliament. He said all that is needed is political will to bring a law on the matter.
4- In an office memorandum sent to the directors and medical superintendents of central government hospitals and principals of all medical colleges, the ministry said, “In case of any violence against any health worker while on duty, the head of the institution will be responsible for registering an institutional FIR within a maximum of 6 hours of the incident.”
5- Amid growing protests across the country over the rape and murder of a doctor, the government on Friday said heads of health institutions will have to file an FIR within six hours in case of any incident of violence against a health worker on duty.
6- West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given instructions to take the case to a fast-track court. She has said that if needed, the accused will be given the death penalty. The accused should get the harshest punishment. One accused has been arrested. She said that if the people protesting in this case do not trust the state government, they can contact any other investigating agency. The investigation of this case has been handed over to the CBI.
7- Following the Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) call for a 24-hour nationwide shutdown of non-emergency and OPD services, more doctors from public and private healthcare facilities joined the protest against last week’s incident at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, demanding justice for the victim and a central law to protect healthcare workers.
8- The indefinite strike of doctors in the national capital Delhi continued for the fifth day on Friday. During this period, all optional services in hospitals remained suspended. The doctors who were protesting in the premises of their respective hospitals till now gathered outside Nirman Bhawan on Friday and protested. The office of the Union Health Ministry is located in Nirman Bhawan itself.
9- Resident doctors held protest marches in several cities, including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat, while police in Kolkata arrested 25 people in connection with the vandalism and violence at a hospital where students have been protesting since August 9 following the alleged rape and murder.
10 – On August 9, the body of a female trainee doctor was found under mysterious circumstances in the seminar hall of R.G. Kar Medical College. The female doctor was raped and murdered. She was a second-year postgraduate medical student at the hospital and was also working as a house staff.
Read Also:
