More than 500 doctors, including house surgeons and post graduate students, wore black badges and went on strike inside the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) premises on Wednesday.
Expressing their solidarity to protest the murder of Dr. Sethulakshmi in Tuticorin on Monday, they said that the government should provide protection to the medicos while they were on duty.
Patients in out-patient wards were left unattended, planned surgeries were postponed and only emergency cases were attended.
All the medicos gathered in front of Medical Superintendent Room to condole the killing of Dr. Sethulakshmi.
They said that innocent doctors in CMCH were continuously attacked by patients or their relatives and called for providing additional security at the premises.
Later they took out a rally from CMCH to the Collectorate to present a petition to the Collector.
On Sunday, more than 150 house surgeons at the CMCH went on a flash strike protesting the assault on a medico by a patient.
They withdrew their strike after the police arrested Dinesh (22), who along with friends is said to have assaulted the medico.
Dinesh was admitted to the Trauma Ward after he sustained injuries in a road accident.
Our Tirupur Staff Reporter adds:
Out-patient (OP) consultancy in the government hospitals across the district were disrupted on Wednesday as the doctors observed an in-house protest against the gruesome murder of a Tuticorin-based lady doctor by a patient's husband and his gang on Monday night.
However, the emergency care services and vaccinations against diseases like rabies were carried out by the doctors as usual.
Black badges
The medical practitioners at the 43 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in the district worked wearing black badges.
N. Saroja, treasurer of Tamil Nadu Government Doctors' Association (Tirupur district unit), said it was unfortunate that Tuticorin South police did not take the complaints of threat made by the accused to Dr. T. Sethulakshmi, two days prior to her murder, seriously.
“Casualties could happen in the medical profession despite the best efforts of doctors due to various medical reasons and hence, it has been wrong from the part of the accused to blame the doctor, Mrs. Sethulakshmi, for the death of his wife and the foetus,” she pointed out.
The doctors demanded that people involved in the attacks on hospitals or on doctors should be convicted at faster pace. “Higher conviction can reduce such heinous crimes,” they said.
