Chandigarh: On Tuesday, the PGI Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) submitted a detailed report to the institute director regarding shutting down of emergency services on October 7. Before this, neither the PGI administration nor the ARD had officially documented suspension of work in the emergency.
However, a faculty member accused ARD president Dr Hariharan of inciting suspension of work in the emergency and claimed that Dr Hariharan was in the Sector 15 market.In the wake of this, ARD office-bearers wrote to the PGI director, “After the residents were assured by the chief security and head of the medicine department of institutional FIR, it prompted several residents, including Dr Hariharan to leave the emergency OPD. Later, when the director arrived and urged residents to resume work, he enquired about ARD office bearers. The president returned soon upon being called.”
According to the report, on the evening of Oct 7, a woman senior resident doctor was manhandled by a patient's attendant and a woman security guard who intervened was also assaulted. This incident left doctors and nursing staff posted in the emergency OPD emotionally distressed, prompting them to collectively withhold their duties. News of the assault quickly spread through the WhatsApp group of the resident doctors.
On learning about the incident, residents, including ARD president Dr Hariharan, reached the emergency department. There was a collective demand for an institutional FIR to be filed against perpetrators. The report categorically states that neither Dr Hariharan nor any other ARD office-bearer incited withdrawal of emergency duty by residents. Instead, the ARD stood by the collective decision of the victim, residents, and nursing officers posted in the emergency OPD to temporarily suspend their duties due to the distressing incident. To substantiate their claims, the ARD obtained signatures from the nursing staff and doctors on duty during that time.