The PGI Chandigarh Faculty Association announced that all OPD services at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research will remain closed on August 17, though emergency and critical care services will continue. Chd Docs on road demanding Justice for Moumita, the kolkata rape case victim who has succumbed to this horror.
The out-patient department services of all government hospitals in Punjab would also be badly affected in a show of solidarity with the agitation of doctors in Kolkata over the tragic rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. Thousands of patients coming for non-emergency treatment may be affected due to the strike.
Private practitioners are also expected to join the agitation, and sources in their association have informed that they will stay away from attending to patients on Saturday, except in emergency cases.
“We will organise a rally and submit memorandums to the deputy commissioners of all districts in Punjab, seeking justice for the Kolkata doctor. Our OPDs will remain closed in both morning and evening hours on Saturday,” said Dr Manoj Sobti, convenor of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Punjab.
Government doctors in Punjab had already suspended OPD services and elective surgeries on Friday in support of the agitation call given by the PCMS association, which had thrown the healthcare system out of gear across the entire state. The health infrastructure in Punjab comprises 23 district hospitals, 112 subdivision hospitals, and 450 community health centres with a strength of over 3,000 doctors, including specialists.
Dr. Jagjit Singh, the top adviser at the Punjab Specialist Doctors’ Association, said: “More than 3,000 doctors in a protest are working on 685 government hospitals in Punjab.”.
The incident has even drawn support for the doctors from the nursing staff in Punjab. The doctors protesting at Rajindra Medical College and Hospital in Patiala raised slogans of “no safety, no duty,” telling the administration how urgently they needed security. According to Dr. Nrip Jindal, vice-president of the Residents Doctors’ Association at the hospital, “We want an end to such incidents as in Kolkata and we want adequate security in Punjab government hospitals.”
Dr. Akshay Seth, the president of the Residents Doctors’ Association, Rajindra Medical College and Hospital, said that the security arrangements were very poor in government medical colleges of Punjab and admitted that private security was hired on a temporary basis.
According to Jujhar Singh, president of the United Nurses Association of Punjab, nursing staff has also joined the protest. They sat in dharnas along with doctors and now plan a candle march in the evening to further express their solidarity.