Patna Medical College and Hospital junior doctors withdraw stir

PATNA: Junior doctors of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), who had gone on strike on Sunday night demanding proper security arrangements on the hospital premises, withdrew their agitation on Monday after medical superintendent Dr Rajiv Ranjan Prasad assured them of taking up the issue with the authorities concerned.
The strike, which started at 11pm on Sunday, lasted for 16 hours. The Junior Doctors’ Association (JDA) of PMCH had called the strike after three doctors on emergency duty were allegedly assaulted by the attendants of a patient. JDA president Dr Shanker Bharti said the patient had suffered electric shock and died before reaching the hospital.

“The PMCH administration has assured the junior doctors that security will be tightened on the hospital premises to avoid such incidents. The medical superintendent has told us that he will take up the issue with state health secretary Sanjay Kumar,” Dr Bharti added.

The strike affected the emergency, paediatrics, surgery, medicine, gynaecology, orthopaedics and plastic surgery units. The other services, such as registration counter, indoor wards of all departments and outdoor patient department remained unaffected.

PMCH superintendent Dr Prasad said the hospital administration would discuss the issue with health department officials. “Security of doctors is our prime concern,” he added.