Delhi Doctors Protest Rise in Attacks, OPDs to Stay Shut

The emergency services will still be available at the hospitals.

Doctors stage a demonstration to press implementation of Violence Against Doctors Act, 2010, in Mumbai in March. (Photo: IANS)

Services at some private and government hospitals in Delhi will be hit on Tuesday as their out-patient departments (OPDs) are likely to remain shut till 2 pm over a bandh called by Delhi Medical Association (DMA) to protest the “rise in violence” against medical professionals.

Hospitals like Max and Apollo have cancelled all OPD appointments scheduled for Tuesday and have extended their support to the bandh.

However, the emergency services in all these hospitals will remain open.

Though medical services will be functional in other parts of the country, a ‘pen-down satyagraha’ would be observed by doctors all across as no doctor would give any prescriptions for one hour between 10 am and 11am on Tuesday.

According to a Hindustan Times report, the DMA is supporting the Indian Medical Association's (IMA’s) ‘Dilli Chalo Movement’, a protest march from 13 different parts of the city that will move towards Rajghat on Tuesday.

The report further said that around 10,000 doctors from across the country will be part of the protest.

The IMA will also launch a signature campaign over the issue on social media and has urged all doctors to collect thousands of signatures which would be sent to the Centre seeking stringent laws to curb attacks on doctors.

The medical profession is facing one of its most difficult time. Both, doctors as well as patients, have to understand that the doctor–patient relationship is a sacred one and that the dignity of the profession should be maintained. Feeling that enough is enough that the IMA has given this clarion call, Dilli Chalo.

KK Aggarwal, National President, IMA

The movement aims to address demands of the medical fraternity, which include a stringent central act against violence, single-window accountability with no criminal charges on doctors without intent to harm a patient and single-window registration of doctors and medical establishments.

(With inputs from PTI)