Doctors strike work in southern districts

They participate in the all-India stir following the death of a doctor in Rajasthan

MADURAI

A large number of doctors affiliated to Indian Medical Association (IMA) resorted to a one-day strike by not attending outpatient cases at government and private hospitals and clinics on Saturday.

The all-India strike was called following the death by suicide of a lady doctor in Rajasthan after police registered a case of murder against her based a complaint filed by the relatives of a woman, who died at a hospital due to “negligence” of the doctor.

Following the IMS’s call, the IMA members observed the strike by not attending outpatient cases from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. However, emergency cases and inpatient cases were attended.

In many southern districts, including Madurai, Ramanathapuram and Dindigul, the doctors, holding placards, demanded protection to the doctors from patients and urged the governments to withdraw the criminal case registered against the lady doctor in Rajasthan.

They said on several occasions, the Supreme Court had directed that only after a panel gave its nod, the police should book cases against the doctors in question. “The doctors took so much care that many critical cases were saved from the clutches of death,” Chinnadurai Abdullah, Tamil Nadu State Council member of the IMA, said in Ramanathapuram.

IMA Ramanathapuram Chapter president T. Aravindraj and other office-bearers sought protection to the doctors and hoped the guidelines issued by the apex court were followed in future. Around 330 IMA members in the district participated in the day-long stir, they said.