Highlights
- The AIIMS resident doctors called off the strike on day 3
- The protesting doctors alleged assault by a senior doctor
- Protest called off after meeting between AIIMS administration, doctors
Resident doctors at Delhi's AIIMS, who have been protesting over an
alleged assault on one of their colleagues by a senior doctor, have called off their strike following several rounds of meetings with the administration.
"The strike has been called off. We request the director to declare Monday a working day so that the surgeries which were cancelled due to the strike can be conducted. We, resident doctors, want to compensate in every possible way," a member of the AIIMS resident doctors' association said.
The protest was called off after a meeting between the AIIMS administration and the doctors. The
strike had affected healthcare services at the top hospital for three days.
The resident doctors have been demanding that the administration suspend the senior doctor, who allegedly slapped one of their colleagues in front of patients and other staffers.
Routine surgeries were cancelled, out-patient clinics functioned in a restricted manner and patients seeking OPD consultation were sent back due to the strike. Only the emergency and intensive care unit functioned.
The senior doctor, who heads a department at AIIMS, on Friday reportedly gave a written apology for assaulting the resident doctor, and then went on leave on the advice of an internal probe panel.
Another senior doctor from the department has been made the acting chief of the centre till the probe is over.
The AIIMS protest was called off after a meeting between the AIIMS administration and the doctors.
A doctor said 30 of his colleagues "have submitted complaints against the senior doctor. Some of them are very serious in nature. He has been accused of misbehaving with female resident doctors. Some cases of 2013 have also come to the fore".
The AIIMS nurses' union has also condemned the incident. In a letter to AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria, the resident doctors alleged that the senior doctor slapped a senior resident in front of attendees, nursing staff and colleagues, and that the resident doctor was in depression.
The association said an atmosphere of fear existed in the department headed by the senior doctor, and that nobody protested as the chief threatened to fail the junior doctors. The association has written to Health Minister JP Nadda, who is also the president of AIIMS, seeking revocation of national awards given to the senior doctor.
"We reprimand all his actions and request you to consider revoking his BC Roy and Padmashree awards, as we believe that he is not worthy of holding such prestigious awards," the association said in its letter.
With inputs from PTI