OPDs remain closed in all 6 Jharkhand medical colleges

SUBHASH MISHRA

Dhanbad, Aug 21: The OPD boycott by resident doctors and junior doctors/ Interns for the safety of the medicos on duty continued on the 6th day on Wednesday in all six medical colleges of the state, including Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) Ranchi.

Representatives of all six medical colleges including, Dr Ankit Kumar (RIMS), Dr Ganesh Srivastava (MGMMCH), Dr Zunaid Alam (SNMMCH), Dr Surendra Saw (SBMCH Hazaribagh), Dr Snehal Harsh (MMCH, Palamu) and Dr Solanki (PJMCH Dumka) today held a meeting online and decided to continue the boycott till Chief Justice of India’s (CJI) initial safety recommendation is implemented in the college hospitals.

Agitating docs call meeting in evening

IMA Junior Doctors Network (JDN) state secretary Dr Raghvendra, giving this information, said that a meeting will be held in the evening today in which a decision on the continuation of the OPD boycott would be discussed.

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“No doubt, patients are suffering from the OPD boycott call. Doctors do not want the treatment of patients should be affected but the Kolkata incident has created a massive sense of insecurity among doctors, especially lady doctors. No safety arrangement is available in any medical college hospital in the state. In such a situation how would junior doctors return to their workplace,” said Dr Raghvendra.

Govt puts pressure on college authority

Meanwhile, the health department has pressured the principal and superintendent of medical colleges to rope in agitating resident doctors to call off their OPD boycott. Aghast by the RG Kar Medical College Kolkata incident, resident doctors made their respective college authorities clear that since the boycott agitation is being staged under the Junior Doctors Association (JDA) RIMS, they would withdraw it only on the directive of the JDA.

IMA talks with RDA, JDA over agitation

In the meantime, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) state president Dr AK Singh and secretary Dr Pradeep Kumar Singh held talks with representatives of the RDA, and the JDA over the Supreme Court directive on the Kolkata incident and discussed calling off the OPD boycott.