LN Hospital doctors call off strike

Patients were asked to go to the nearest government hospital with emergency services– the RML Hospital in Connaught Place. In the L N Hospital OPD,most departments like medicine,surgery,paediatrics and ENT were manned by one senior doctor till noon. “In the afternoon,when other consultants finished examining patients admitted in the wards,they came to the OPD. Most patients had to be turned away. We had no choice,” said a senior doctor from the surgery department.

Shahistha,a 23-year-old from Sonepat,had an orthopaedic OPD appointment for a hip injury on Monday. She had waited outside hospital gates from 6 am. “All gates were shut in the morning. They opened OPD registrations at 9.30 am,so we thought the hospital work would start. But we were number 104 on the waiting list and not a single doctor came to the OPD,” said her father.

Nearly 500 resident doctors went on an indefinite strike after a female doctor was allegedly slapped by a patient’s mother on Saturday night. This was the second such assault in the hospital in the last three days. Last Friday,a team of four doctors was assaulted when they were trying save a teenager with an intestinal disorder.

With the medical superintendent (MS) on leave,Maulana Azad Medical College Dean Dr A K Aggarwal became acting MS.

“We called off our strike at 4.30 pm on Monday after we were assured better security measures by Prinicipal Secretary Health and our acting Medical Superintendent. We have chalked out a protocol where different individuals will take responsibility of legal actions to be taken if any such incident happens in future,” said LNJP Resident Doctors’ Association president Dr Anurag Mishra.

He said that the number of guards will be increased,one-relative-per-patient rule will be enforced and the number of CCTV cameras will be increased. “Hoardings containing details of Delhi Medicare Service Personnel and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act,2008 will be put up in different places in the hospital. This will be done to educate patients’ relatives on legal actions they might encounter if they misbehave with staff,” said Dr Vinay Aggarwal,another member of the association.