The Hindu : New Delhi News : Safdarjung strike ends

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 09, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

New Delhi

New Delhi

Safdarjung strike ends

Staff Reporter

Authorities assure doctors of additional security soon

Photo: V. V. Krishnan

Patient care:Doctors attending to patients at an open OPD set up at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi on Wednesday before the strike by resident doctors was called off.

NEW DELHI: Much to the relief of patients, over 1,000 resident doctors at the Safdarjung Hospital here called off their strike after the hospital administration assured them of providing additional security soon.

The doctors had gone on a flash strike on Tuesday morning after three of their colleagues were allegedly manhandled by the relatives of a patient who died.

To provide security to the doctors working in government-run hospitals in the Capital, the Union Health Ministry is now planning to raise a special security force. This was decided at a meeting held on Tuesday between Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Shakuntala D. Gamlin, Safdarjung Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr. N. K. Mohanty and members of Safdarjung Hospital Resident Doctors' Association.

After the strike was called off, Dr. Mohanty said: “The strike has been called off and the demand of the doctors for adequate security has been met. A plan for raising a security force for government hospitals was also cleared by the Union Health Ministry. This facility is already in place in MP hospitals but will take some time to come up here. For the short term, however, we are bringing in more security personnel to ensure that the medical staff here feels safe. A tender with regard to enhancing security will be finalised by September 17.”

Safdarjung Hospital Resident Doctors' Association member Dr. Pratap Dutta said: “Our demand for enhanced security has been met. We have been given 200 more guards who will also be given walkie-talkies in order to maintain the internal communication for any emergency need. There will also be a 24-hour hotline connecting all the wards in the hospital with a control room that will be open round the clock. As for the long term solution, a hospital protection force will be put in place for adequate protection of the medical staff.”

“Also, we have stressed that a system of one attendant with one patient should be strictly followed and the hospital administration should ensure that patient's relatives get a security pass before entering the wards,” he added.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day members of the Association had set up a temporary Out Patient Department outside the reception/enquiry and the central admission services office to ensure that patients were not harassed because of the strike.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi