The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) administration on Sunday suspended five resident doctors for the death of a pregnant nurse due to their alleged negligence.
Over 300 nurses held a protest march in the hospital after the death, following which the suspension orders were issued.
The decision has been denounced by the Resident Doctors Association (RDA), who are demanding an immediate rollback.
In a letter to the AIIMS Director, RDA officials said the five doctors, who were on duty in the operation theatre, had decided to perform a Caesarean section on the nurse, Rajbir Kaur, as there were some complications.
The nurse suffered a cardiac arrest during the surgery, leading to more complications.
But without taking this into consideration, the administration placed them under suspension, a senior RDA official said.
“The RDA strongly condemns this action and urges the administration to withdraw the suspension order immediately, failing which the resident doctors will be forced to withdraw all patient care with immediate effect,” the letter said.
Nurses’ strike threat
Earlier in the day, the members of AIIMS nursing union staged a protest over the nurse’s death. The union threatened to go on strike if the doctors, who treated the woman, were not terminated from service.
According to Sukhlal Jat, a member of the nursing union, Rajbir Kaur was admitted to the hospital for a normal delivery on January 16.
During treatment, she lost her baby and was put on life support. She died on Saturday night. “Ever since her baby died, the nursing union had been protesting against the administration for not taking note of the issue and punishing the errant doctors,” said the nursing union representative.
Police said a post-mortem would be conducted.
