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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, January 27: Health care services at the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Hospital in West Delhi came to a complete standstill today after the doctors went on an indefinite strike to protest against violent assault on two of their colleagues last evening.
While the emergency services remained suspended, the OPD was forcibly closed in the morning itself due to which over 1,200 patients had to return disappointed. No new patient is being admitted and several less critical’ ones who are already undergoing treatment in various wards are reportedly being advised to go elsewhere.
The hospital caters to the entire West and North-West Delhi and treats about 1,200 to 1,500 patients in its OPD wing, besides over 300 emergency cases in the casualty section, every day. Those who arrived from far away places today were greeted with yellow banners, informing that all medical services were closed. A handful of senior doctors are manning the skeletal services. Meanwhile, the hospital administration has appointed a four-member team to probe the incident and suggest measures for improving the internal security and the working conditions for doctors and nurses. The team — headed by the head of the department of medicine, Dr C.R. Biswas — is likely to give its report within two days.
The incident which triggered off the strike took place around 4 p.m. yesterday when around 10 persons, including two class-IV employees of the hospital, rushed a 20-day-old infant to the pediatric casualty ward. Upon being told that the child was already dead, the attendants apparently got violent and started hitting the doctors-on-duty.
According to the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA), the infant had apparently been undergoing treatment at some private clinic and was already dead by the time he was brought there.
“What invited the family’s ire were the detailed questioning by Dr (Ms) Ravneet and Dr Amarjeet Singh, the doctors-on-duty, who were trying the ascertain the cause of death by asking about the child’s illness and its symptoms,” a doctor said, adding that the distraught family was refusing to believe that the child was dead.
The doctors were suddenly taken unawares by a volley of abuses and punching, pushing and hitting by the child’s attendants. Two of them have been recognised as Rishi Pal and Sheila, who work as a driver and sweeperess respectively at the hospital itself. About 500 doctors got together and marched to the medical superintendent’s office, declaring a lightening strike and demanding stringent action against the accused.
“We were compelled to take the extreme step of striking work only when the administration failed to act on our complaint,” said the doctors who have now pitched a test outside the administrative block of the hospital.
Speaking to the Express Newsline, the striking doctors said the incidents like the above had become a routine affair at the hospital’s emergency wing and various wards. Last year, the nurses too had gone on strike after two of them were similarly assaulted in separate incidents “but nothing was done by the administration to stop its recurrence.
The resident doctors said they often brought the matter to the administration’s notice by their pleas for better security and working conditions were ignored. “Since 90 per cent of us are employed on an ad hoc basis, the administration apparently doesn’t want to invite the ire of the powerful union of class-IV employees for our cause,” a senior resident doctor said.
Dr R.N. Vaishya, medical superintendent of the hospital, however, said the issue like revamping of security arrangements will take some time to resolve, though one of the assaulters was arrested for attacking the doctors and was later bailed out.
