 "IMA Doctors Nationwide Strike News & Doctors offer OPD services outside Health Ministry as strike continues | India News")
New Delhi: Doctors during a protest over their safety in the wake of RG Kar Medical College incident, at Nirman Bhawan in New Delhi, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (Photo: PTI)
Several resident doctors’ associations (RDAs) continued their strike in major hospitals across India for the eighth consecutive day on Monday, citing unresolved safety concerns for healthcare professionals amid protests over the rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor in Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College and Hospital.
As a mark of symbolic protest, all resident doctors from the RDA of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, marched and sat to provide elective outpatient department (OPD) services outside Nirman Bhawan, which houses the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
“All resident doctors will be providing elective OPD services for around 36 specialties (including medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, and others) to patients outside Nirman Bhawan,” an official statement from AIIMS RDA stated.
The continuation of protests comes two days after the Indian Medical Association (IMA) held a 24-hour nationwide strike in protest against the incident. The medical body also wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, listing demands around hospital security, a central protection act for healthcare workers, and proper investigation of the case.
The IMA’s nationwide strike, joined by doctors from government and private hospitals across the country, included the complete withdrawal of routine OPD services and elective surgeries, while all essential and emergency services were maintained.
The decision to continue also comes in response to what the RDA deems as inadequate assurances from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare regarding the tragic incident at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
While the ministry issued a notice on August 17, promising the formation of a committee to suggest safety measures, the doctors’ body expressed disappointment, stating that previous committees have failed to deliver significant results.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case on Tuesday after taking suo motu cognisance of the Kolkata rape-murder on Sunday. The bench will be led by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud.
CBI grills ex-principal for 4th day after doctor’s rape-murder
Officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questioned Sandip Ghosh, former principal of the R G Kar Medical College, for the fourth consecutive day on Monday in connection with their probe into the rape and murder of a woman doctor.
Ghosh was asked to specify his role after getting the news of the doctor’s death, whom he had contacted, and why he made the parents wait for nearly three hours.
The ex-principal was also questioned about who had ordered the renovation of the rooms near the seminar hall at the emergency building of the hospital after the incident.
Ghosh has been questioned for several hours over the last three days since Friday by the CBI officers. The officers of the central probe agency are also checking his mobile phone call list details as well as his WhatsApp chat history.
First Published: Aug 19 2024 | 7:45 PM IST
