Surgery resident assaulted at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital, Doctors Declare Strike

Aligarh: The resident doctors belonging to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital have announced a strike in response to a recent incident of physical assault on a resident of the Surgery Department, while he was on duty and was providing care to the patient.

The incident of violence against the resident doctor occurred yesterday i.e. on August 16, 2023, when the attendants of a patient assaulted the on-duty resident doctor.

Sources at the hospital informed Medical Dialogues that the incident took place at around 11-11.30 PM yesterday when a patient with a head injury was brought to the facility. After giving first-aid treatment to the patient, the on-duty doctors were attending other patients with serious conditions. Meanwhile, the concerned patient was kept under observation.

However, the attendants of the concerned patient started demanding immediate attention. This led to an argument, and after this, the attendants of the patient allegedly started misbehaving with the doctor and also assaulted the doctor.

Protesting against the incident, the resident doctors at the hospital have started a strike. The doctors recently wrote to the Casualty Medical Officer of JNMCH and referring to the incident of violence they mentioned in the letter, "This is to bring to your kind attention about the incident that occurred on the 16th of August,2023 involving a physical assault on resident of Surgery Department (on duty) while he was providing care to the patient. The incident is unfortunate and horrifying but it was not the first time that such an incident occurred to a resident doctor on duty."

Also Read: Violence at JIPMER: On-duty paediatricians face mob attack, Faculty association demands action

"We have always been assured about the safety of the environrnent while performing our duties by administration and protection team but the truth is far from it. As a result of this, instances like these take place on a regular basis. As far as we are concerned, incidents like these are routinely encountered by us and we no longer have any surety of the environment being safe for us to do our duties without us from facing harm from such anti social goons," further mentioned the letter.

Demanding safety at the workplace, the doctors added in the letter, "Through this, we strongly demand safety at our workplace to do our duty by ensuring communication between security personnel and resident doctors to limit these kinds of incidents in the hospital and manage any such scenario before damage."

The doctors have demanded that the AMU students should be treated in the M.A.S (U.H.S) unless tertiary care is indicated. They have also demanded that an FIR has to be registered in respect to this incident.

"We want AMU students to be treated in the M.A.S (U.H.S) unless tertiary care is indicated. We want FIR to be registered under the name of the assault on (on duty doctor) on patient and patient's attendants. Until then, we, the Resident Doctors of JNMCH hereby declare STRIKE i.e., no doctor with immediate effect will be attending to any duties until resolution of all our demands," stated the letter.

"Kindly And with us and strengthen our strike by your support and kindly abiding by our demands," it further added. Doctors blamed the hospital authorities for inaction and they have demanded the immediate arrest of the culprits.

Meanwhile, the incident has been heavily criticised by the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA). Taking to Twitter, the association mentioned, "Surgery resident assaulted at JNMC Aligarh! Hectic duty hours with an enormous workload, with no security measures in place. Moreover, the administration is giving a very muted response."

Commenting on the matter, the General Secretary of FORDA, Dr. Sarvesh Pandey told Medical Dialogues, "We condemn the assault on the resident doctor and we want implementation of the Central Protection Act as early as possible."

Medical Dialogues recently reported that the National Medical Commission (NMC) has finally notified the NMC Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations 2023 through a gazette notification. These regulations talked about the right of refusal as per which the doctors can now refuse treatment to the unruly and violent patients. In such cases, the doctors have been told to follow a procedure of properly documenting and reporting the said violence, their refusal and referral of the patient to other health facilities.

“In case of abusive, unruly, and violent patients or relatives, the RMP can document and report the behavior and refuse to treat the patient. Such patients should be referred for further treatment elsewhere,” stated the Regulations.

Also Read: Doctors can refuse to treat Unruly patients, those patients who don't pay displayed fees - NMC notifies new code of conduct