The Madras High Court directed the government to ensure timely treatment to patients admitted in government hospitals and take immediate steps to prevent unsavoury incidents between doctors and patients.
Justice N. Kirubakaran gave the directions on a plea seeking action against medical students, trainee doctors and doctors for their negligence of not attending to patients and resorting to a protest in the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH), Chennai.
According to the petitioner C. Kumaran, he visited the RGGGH on Thursday to take an MRI scan as prescribed by a doctor for his suspected liver ailment. However, protesting students from Madras Medical College (MMC) did not permit him and other patients to enter the hospital premises.
On inquiry, he was informed by hospital staff that doctors and students were on a protest following an altercation. “No doctors were available to attend to patients. The petitioner came to know through media reports that totally three patients died due to failure of the doctors to attend to patients,” S. Doraisamy, counsel for the petitioner, said.
Additional Government Pleader Rajagopalan submitted that no doctors had indulged in the strike and that the protest announced by the students has been called off and proper treatment was ensured to the patients.
Pointing out that the safety of the doctors, medical students and house surgeons was important, the judge said at the same time effective treatment should be given to patients.
The court then directed the State government to file an affidavit giving details of doctors’ strength, including medical students and house surgeons in government hospitals, whether it was adequate, details of vacancies and the budgetary allocation for the MMC.
The plea was posted to March 20 further hearing.
