New Delhi:

Doctors at the nation’s premier medical institute AIIMS-Delhi will hold a protest in the national Capital on Saturday afternoon to seek justice for the rape and murder victim at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in West Bengal.

Vice president of the Federation of All India Medical Associations (FAIMA) and a senior resident doctor at AIIMS-New Delhi, Dr Suvrankar Datta told the media that they were planning a peaceful protest.

“We are organising a large peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar on August 31 to seek justice for our colleague at RG Kar Medical College in West Bengal,” Dr Suvrankar Datta was quoted as saying by media reports.

In the wake of repeated physical and sexual assaults on medical professionals, particularly women while on duty, the medical fraternity in the country is demanding that the Union government implement a nationwide protection Act for healthcare professionals to prevent violence against them.

Dr Suvrankar Datta said, “We call on the Central Government to implement a nationwide protection Act for healthcare professionals to prevent violence.”

The doctors are planning to gather at Jantar Mantar for the protest and have appealed to others from the medical community to join them in drawing the government’s attention to their plight and to seek justice for the RG Kar victim.

Dr Suvrankar Datta said, “Ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on September 5, I urge doctors to join us at Jantar Mantar from 3 P.M. to 5 P.M. on Saturday. We want to demonstrate our unity and demand increased security in hospitals across the country.”

In the weeks after the heinous rape and murder in Kolkata, there were nationwide strikes and protests by doctors across the country and medical facilities were hit.

The striking doctors went back to work following an intervention by the Supreme Court of India on August 22 wherein the top court asked them to join their duties while also assuring them that it would prevail upon authorities not to take adverse action against the striking doctors, who had been protesting over the Kolkata doctor’s rape and murder case.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Hyderabad:

Amid the nationwide call for ensuring the safety of doctors in the wake of the rape and murder at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, a woman junior doctor was attacked by a patient at a hospital in Tirupati. The incident at Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) was captured by a CCTV camera in the hospital.

The CCTV footage shows the attacker grab the doctor by her hair and bang her head on the steel frame of a hospital bed. Others doctors in the ward immediately come to their colleague’s rescue and the attacker is overpowered and taken away.

In a letter to SVIMS director cum vice-chancellor Dr RV Kumar, the intern said she was on duty in the Emergency Medicine Department on Saturday. “… I was unexpectedly attacked by a patient, Bangaru Raju, who approached me from behind, pulled my hair and began forcibly banging my head against the steel rod of a cot,” she wrote, adding that no security personnel were present at the site to help her.

The incident, she said, raises serious concerns about safety in workplace. “If patient had been armed with a sharp weapon, the situation could have escalated with severe consequences,” the doctor wrote, demanding security measures to ensure safety of staff.

Following the incident, doctors of the hospital staged a protest and demanded safety at workplace.

The incident at the Andhra hospital comes weeks after the chilling rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at Kolkata. The 31-year-old was raped and killed on duty. The incident has sparked massive protests and doctors of several premier institutions across the country took to the streets to demand measures to ensure their safety at work.

The Supreme Court has now set up a 10-member National Task Force to recommend steps to prevent violence against and ensure working conditions for healthcare workers. The court has said the task force would prepare an action plan to prevent gender-based violence and ensure a dignified working space for doctors.

Against this backdrop, the incident at SVIMS, Tirupati, yet again puts under the spotlight the safety of doctors on duty.

Kolkata:
Under fire after the rape-murder of a 31-year-old doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, the West Bengal government has made a string of changes in top posts in the hospital’s administration, as demanded by protesting medicos

Here are 10 facts from this big story

New Delhi:
Amid nationwide uproar over the gruesome rape-murder of a trainee doctor at a Kolkata Hospital, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has called for a nationwide strike and withdrawal of non-emergency medical services for 24 hours beginning today.

1. IMA, the largest organisation of doctors in India, has demanded an overhaul of the working and living conditions of resident doctors, including 36-hour shifts and safe places to rest. It sought a central law to prevent violence against medical professionals at workplaces.

2. During the strike, which began at 6 am today and will go on till Sunday, all emergency services will be functional. However, routine OPD services and elective surgeries will not be conducted. 

3. In its statement, the IMA has put forth a list of demands to ensure that security protocols of hospitals “be no less than (that of) an airport”. Hospitals should be declared as safe zones with CCTVs and higher deployment of security personnel, it said.

4. The doctors’ body also called for a thorough, swift investigation of the “barbaric” crime and asked for “appropriate and dignified” compensation to the victim’s family.

5. Key medical student organisations like The All India Medical Students’ Association (AIMSA) and Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) have joined the nationwide strike.

6. The IMA’s Chandigarh unit has suspended OPD services and will conduct a protest march from 11 am today. In Bengaluru, over 1,000 doctors are likely to participate in a protest at the IMA office.

7. The nationwide strike comes a day after students across Indian cities conducted protest marches and staged dharnas against the alleged inaction over the horrific rape-murder that has sent shockwaves across the country.

8. In Delhi, multiple resident doctors’ associations, including those from AIIMS and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, gathered at Nirman Bhawan on Friday. Doctors also conducted a candle march at India Gate.

9. Protesting doctors at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where the horrific crime took place, have expressed dissatisfaction, stating that their demands for justice have not been met. They have accused the police of mishandling the case and the ruling Trinamool Congress government of trying to destroy evidence to shield the accused.

10. The case is now being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under an order from the Calcutta High Court. “We have identified at least 30 suspects and have started questioning them,” a CBI officer said on Friday.

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