Doctors call off strike

Junior doctors at the Gandhi Hospital ended their flash strike on Wednesday bringing relief to scores of patients who bore the brunt of it for the past three days. The doctors were protesting the attack on a junior doctor by the relatives of a patient on Sunday. Over 400 junior doctors - as the post-graduate medical students are called – were on strike paralysing medical services at Telangana's biggest government-run healthcare facility.

On Wednesday, Deputy Chief Minister T Rajaiah, home minister Naini Narasimha Reddy and Junior Doctors’ Association (JUDA) met for talks in this regard.
It was after an assurance given by Rajaiah that an inquiry would be initiated on the incident, did the doctors call off their strike.

Emerging from the meeting, the Deputy Chief Minister said, “The JUDAs requested for bolstering security at the hospital and installation of CCTV cameras. The government would be making the necessary arrangements in this regard.”

Naini Narasimha Reddy condemned the attack on doctors and said that any form of physical altercation was a criminal offence. “We assure that such instances would not repeat in the future and ensure security,” said Naini. The government has decided to employ the services of Special Protection Force (SPF) for the security of doctors as demanded by JUDA. 50 CCTV cameras would also be installed at the hospital.

Four people have been detained by the police in connection with the case. With the strike being called off, patients can heave a sigh of relief. Several poor patients were seen lying unattended as the outpatient services remained crippled since Monday. The in-patient services were also hit and surgeries were postponed as junior doctors refused to attend to their duties.

This was not the first instance of protests by junior doctors. In 2007, the doctors had gone on a month-long strike to protest an incident in which a local legislator manhandled a junior doctor at Niloufer Hospital. The government then issued an ordinance making attacks on doctors a non-bailable offence. The government provided SPF cover and set up a police outpost at Niloufer campus after another attack on a junior doctor in 2011. The SPF was subsequently removed and the services of private security agencies were hired. But now the government has revamped the services of the SPF.