The Indian Medical Association has demanded a blackout of the modern medicine doctors for 24 hours with effect from 6 a.m. Saturday. In a circular, the association pointed out that emergency centers would continue to operate and has presented a list of the following demands to the government.
The Indian Medical Association has said that services in all its hospitals would be shut for 24 hours from 6 am on Saturday. The withdrawal of doctors’ services coincided with public anger over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in a city of Kolkata.
The association has compiled a list of demands, which include, among others, a safe zone for hospitals and a policy to cover violence against doctors and hospitals.
Late last year, a trainee doctor was raped and murdered in Kolkata, and this led to the strike by doctors across the country. The IMA has also condemned the violence that came with the beating to death of a trainee doctor in the RG Kar Hospital.
“The RG KAR incident has brought to the fore the two dimensions of violence in the hospital: a crime of barbaric scale due to the lack of safe spaces for women and the hooliganism that is unleashed due to the lack of an organized security protocol. Today both the medical fraternity and the nation are victims,” the association said in a statement.
While there would be no operation for 24 hours in relation to medical services, the services crucial for serving the public would remain functional and casualty wards would remain open, the IMA said.
