HYDERABAD: Junior doctors at Osmania General Hospital (OGH) boycotted all services except emergency duties on Saturday, seeking security for doctors after a deceased patient's attendant slapped a doctor on Wednesday.
Junior doctors assembled at the hospital and raised slogans stating their demands. They then held a meeting with Afzalgunj police officials as well as with senior officers.
The officers assured them that GO 103, which stipulates 164 personnel from the TS Special Protection Force (TSSPF) deployed at government hospitals to prevent incidents of this nature, would be implemented. Until then, four Afzalgunj constables would be deployed at the hospital. Post the meeting, the doctors decided to resume work. The GO was issued in 2019 but no TSSPF personnel have been deployed until now.
The Osmania Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA) has written a letter to health minister T Harish Rao over the issue. The letter mentioned Wednesday’s incident, and stated: “The incident is just one of many dangers that the “Covid Warriors” face on a daily basis in government hospitals. In the face of such gross disregard for our safety, we hereby boycott all elective duties except emergency.”
The doctors have demanded the immediate posting of TSSPF personnel as per GO 103 at the OGH. They demanded that strict action be taken against those responsible for the lapse of security at the OGH, which enabled a patient’s attendant to assault a doctor.
They also demanded an active committee to investigate into the lapses and suggest changes that can be implemented in the current system for better security of all doctors working in government hospitals.
One of the junior doctors said incidents where doctors are physically attacked by attendants of patients affects them severely and causes doctors to always work in fear.
