Healthcare services suffer as doctors call for a 'Nationwide' strike

New Delhi: Nationwide healthcare services at government and private hospitals will be hit on Monday as Indian Medical Association (IMA) has called for a nationwide withdrawal of non-essential medical services, including outdoor patient department (OPD) services, for 24 hours beginning at 6 am from today, in support of their striking colleagues in West Bengal.

Emergency, casualty and ICU services remain unaffected.

The IMA has demanded a national law and a minimum of 7 years imprisonment against violence in hospitals. Hospitals should be declared safe zones and provision of appropriate security should be the responsibility of the state, it added.

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Doctors at the Centre-run Safdarjung Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital, RML Hospital, as well as Delhi government facilities such as GTB Hospital, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital are joining the strike.

IMA members will also stage a dharna at its headquarters here.

The Delhi Medical Association (DMA) and the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) have extended their support to the strike.

"Emergent Executive Committee Meeting convened decided to support the call given by IMA for withdrawal of non-essential services on 17th June (Monday) for 24 hours (6am to 6am) to protest against violence against doctors and hospitals. All clinics, nursing homes, diagnostic centres and hospitals are requested to shut down routine services," a statement by the DMA said.

Junior doctors in West Bengal are on strike since June 11 after two of their colleagues were attacked and seriously injured allegedly by relatives of a patient who died at the NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

In a show of solidarity, medical practitioners across the country have chose not to work, leaving patients in the lurch.

The apex medical body, IMA, has demanded a comprehensive central law in dealing with violence on doctors and healthcare staff.

Security measures and the determinants leading to violence should also be addressed, it said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the agitating doctors in West Bengal are likely to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee later in the day at an auditorium adjacent to the state secretariat in Howrah, and work out ways to resolve the impasse.

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