AIIMS Doctors on Indefinite Strike After Senior Assaults Junior

The doctors have demanded immediate suspension of the senior doctor, who also heads a department at AIIMS.

Members of Resident Doctors’ Association sit on strike. 

(Photo: ANI) 

Resident doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, on Thursday, 26 April, declared an indefinite strike after one of their colleagues was allegedly assaulted by Dr Atul Kumar, chief of the Dr RP Centre, reported PTI.

The doctors have demanded immediate suspension of Dr Kumar. According to ANI, the doctors will continue to maintain emergency and intensive care unit (ICU) services.

The Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) has demanded that the doctor in question not be allowed to take in thesis candidates and conduct any kind of verbal or written examination. It also sought a written apology from Dr Kumar.

The healthcare services at the premier institute have been partially affected due to the strike.

The Emergency and ICU services remained operational, but all routine surgeries have been cancelled, out-patient clinics being run in a restricted manner and all academic activity and exams postponed indefinitely. 

A senior officer of the administration to PTI

The hospital administration has put in place a contingency plan for patient care services, as a part of which faculty-on-call in all clinical departments will physically man the in-patient wards.

“OPD services will function on restricted basis till such a time that normalcy is restored. Only follow-up patients with prior appointment will be registered in OPD. New Patients OPD registration will be done as per availability of faculty in respective OPD as decided by Head of Department/Unit concerned. No walk-in registration (new and old) will be done”, the order by the administration said.

Routine surgeries will remain suspended and only emergency cases will be taken up for surgery. Diagnostic services will function on a restricted basis as maximum possible for the faculty, it stated.

What Led to the Strike?

In a letter to AIIMS director Randeep Guleria, the RDA alleged that Dr Kumar slapped a senior resident in front of the attendees, nursing staff and colleagues, and that the resident doctor was under depression and had gone home.

A copy of the notice demanding immediate resignation of the senior doctor. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@ANI)

The RDA said an atmosphere of fear existed in the department headed by the senior doctor, and that nobody protested as the chief allegedly threatened to fail the junior doctors.

The resident doctors also raised the reported misbehaviour of Dr Kumar towards the female residents.

The letter read:

Dear Director sir, we talk about violence against doctors by relatives of patients, but this act has caused great anguish among residents and shattered the sacred student-teacher relationship.

"We expect an immediate and strong action from your side so that a message goes out that doctors are not here to be beaten," the letter read.

As a mark of protest against the incident, the doctors attended patients wearing helmets. In a late night statement, the AIIMS said the incident in question took place on Wednesday, 25 April, following which the Dr Kumar apologised to his junior.

“On 25th April, an incident was reported wherein a faculty member had slapped a resident doctor in the AIIMS hospital. The faculty member apologised to the resident immediately,” it said.

The statement said the resident doctor had accepted the apology.

The AIIMS director had also instituted a five-member committee to be chaired by the dean of research to enquire into the incident.

However, the strike was called by the Resident Doctors Association on Thursday evening, following which the medical services at the premier institute were affected.

The director has appealed to the RDA to call off the strike in the interest of patients.

(With inputs from PTI and ANI)

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