RIMS junior doctors, nurses go on strike

RIMS nurses and junior doctors went on strike on Saturday after relatives of a deceased patient manhandled their colleagues crippling the medical services at the biggest State-owned medical college and hospital.

They are demanding immediate intervention of Health Minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi and Principal Secretary, Health, Nidhi Khare, to resolve the issue.

Family members had created ruckus in the hospital after death of a middle aged woman, Geeta Devi, at RIMS general ward.

According to Head, RIMS Junior Nurses Association, Ram Rekha Rai, the family members of deceased manhandled and misbehaved with nurses on duty. “Despite giving rounds of clarification about the main cause of death to the family members, they kept harassing the nurses putting serious allegations against them. They were not ready to accept that it was a natural death and no one specifically was responsible for it. A few of them even used abusive language during conversation,” Rai said.

As many as 350 nurses are on strike and have decided to continue their protest along with the junior doctors. Also, the nurses during the agitation on Saturday afternoon have demanded RIMS administrative personnel to register an FIR against those who created trouble in the hospital. 

On the other hand, the deceased kin asserted that due to medical negligence, they have lost one of their family members. “The patient was feeling uneasy since June 1 morning. The nurses knew the condition of the patient who was undergoing treatment here for last two days but then also instead of calling senior doctors, they called a junior doctor. The Junior doctor was drunk when he was conducting diagnosis,” said a relative of Geeta Devi on anonymity.

Notably, Geeta Devi (45) and Manishankar Prasad (50) were admitted at RIMS on May 29 and were undergoing medical treatment since then. According to the hospital’s record, both had consumed poison and their condition was critical when brought to RIMS. Prasad died on June 1.

Meanwhile, despite repeated attempts, RIMS Acting Director, Dr. RK Srivastava was unable to convince the nurses and junior doctors to call off their strike. “Neither junior doctors nor nurses are ready to give up. According to their representatives, they want to discuss the issue with the Minister and Secretary only. I have conveyed their message to both of them. Both Minister and Secretary at present are out of station. They will be returning on June 6,” said Srivastava who assured that emergency services will not be hampered due to the strike. Meanwhile, in an attempt to register their protest, nurses and junior doctors conducted candle march on Saturday evening.