Resident doctors at Safdarjung Hospital here called off their strike on Monday evening after meeting with Union Health Ministry officials, who agreed to deploy additional security personnel for safety of the medical staff.
The doctors were on strike since Sunday, after a Delhi Police head constable’s son who had come for treatment at the Centre-run hospital on Sunday allegedly punched an on-duty doctor.
Earlier on Monday, Day Two of the strike, patients were seen running from pillar to post seeking treatment. Two families even alleged that their kin died due to non-availability of timely treatment.
Emergency services
Safdarjung Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) president Prakash Thakur said: “...Senior doctors are working and taking care of patients. Everything is running fine.”
Despite this assurance and a statement by the hospital administration that additional staff had been deployed to ensure critical care did not suffer, emergency services at Safdarjung Hospital were adversely affected.
An 18-year-old accident victim, who was admitted to the hospital’s emergency section on January 12, succumbed to his injuries on Monday. His family alleged that he did not receive proper treatment because of the strike. He was referred to Safdarjung Hospital from a hospital in Gurugram.
His elder brother said, “My brother was referred to this hospital on January 12. The next day, the resident doctors went on strike and patients were not attended to properly after that. We requested that my brother be referred to another hospital but nothing was done. He died today [on Monday] morning.”
In another instance, a family alleged that a 20-year-old woman died after she was not given treatment on time. An RDA member refrained from commenting on whether there was any connection between the strike and the deaths.
“The deaths are unfortunate. Senior doctors attended to patients in the emergency ward. Incidents of doctors being assaulted at work have become quite frequent. There is a need to beef up security and deploy marshals on hospital premises for their safety,” added Dr. Thakur.
The outpatient department at Safdarjung Hospital, which gets over 5,000 patients daily, received 3,723 cases on Monday.
“The guard told us that doctors at the hospital are on strike. They said if ours was an emergency case, we should rush to AIIMS Trauma Centre nearby and not waste time here,” said Anitha Gopal, who was suffering from swelling, fever and vomiting since Sunday night.
“Doctors should not be assaulted and they should not be allowed to go on strike either,” said Rampal Prakash, who had brought his 10-year-old son for chemotherapy and was unsure whether his hour-long commute from Moti Nagar would be futile.
On Sunday, 24-year-old Akshay Kumar, the son of a Delhi Police head constable posted at Safdarjung Enclave police station, had visited the hospital with his friend around 7 a.m. to get treatment for abdominal pain, said the police.
FIR filed
A member of the RDA said Akshay became abusive over alleged delay in administering of treatment and assaulted the attending doctor, Ravinder Nath Thakur, giving him a bloody nose. An FIR has been filed against Mr. Kumar. The father of the accused and the duty constable at the hospital have been transferred to district lines since the incident.
The hospital administration had earlier maintained that they already have 300 security personnel. The RDA had made multiple demands, including deployment of up to 15 marshals in each shift as well as 200 guards, and strict action against those involved in assaulting doctors.
