Mumbai: Four days after nearly 400 resident doctors at the state-run JJ Hospital went on a strike to protest against an assault on two resident doctors following a patient's death at the hospital, the doctors called off the strike on Tuesday.
This comes after the Maharashtra government promised to enhance security for doctors within three months. On Tuesday, representatives of the Maharahstra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) held a meeting with Medical Education Minister Girish Mahajan, head of Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) Praveen Shingare, joint director of DMER TP Lahane and Dean of JJ Hospital S Nandankar.
Amol Hekare, spokesperson of MARD, said, "After a two hour meeting, we have been assured by the minister and other representatives. The assurance has been given in writing and we are satisfied. We do not have a sufficient number of guards at the hospital. Twenty-eight guards have been deployed now and we have been assured that more than 100 will be deployed within three months."
The doctors had demanded 282 guards to be deployed at the JJ Hospital.
Work on installing emergency alarms in the hospital premises is under progress and will be completed within two months.
The doctors further demanded easy availability of life-saving medicines and equipment in the wards so that patients’ families are not inconvenienced.
"We have been demanding sufficient guards for many years as such incidents of attacks on doctors have become common across state and civic hospitals. Our demand over the last three days has never been to inconvenience patients but to ensure that we get security so that we can serve them better," added Hekare.
In solidarity to the protests, doctors of civic-run Sion Hospital, too, observed a token strike on Monday while doctors of KEM Hospital and Nair Hospital wore black badges.
Two resident doctors, including a lady doctor at JJ Hospital, were allegedly assaulted on May 19 by relatives of Zaida Sanaullah Sheikh after she died while undergoing treatment here.
The relatives beat up the doctors and vandalised the ward while the entire incident was caught on CCTV. Four people were arrested in connection with the incident. The doctors called the strike citing serioussecurity threats to their life.
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