PMCH Junior Doctors Defend Strike
Patna: May 28, 2007
In a letter written to PatnaDaily.Com, Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) junior doctors defend their recent strike and condemn the media report that seven people died as a result of their lightening strike.
The letter written by Dr. D. S. Nag is presented below in its entirety:
Sir,
The report "Seven Patients Reportedly Die during the Doctor's Strike" at PMCH is a mere piece of fiction. It is true that there was a lightening strike at PMCH, it is true that patients died, but the reasons behind it were never explored. The media has a duty towards the population and a responsibility to project the truth.
The junior doctors at PMCH are the best students from across the country (50% students pursuing there MD/MS come through the All India Entrance conducted by AIIMS & 50% by a state entrance). They are here to study for their respective specialization, yet they work for at least 12-15 hours in the hospital, not only in gross violation of labour laws, but it is a case of gross denial of human rights. Never has the media come forward to project this misery.
Each junior doctor is a medical graduate, giving the services of a specialist to the downtrodden of Bihar. Have you ever asked what monetary compensation these doctors are being provided? Their yearly earnings are even below the taxable limit. They are being subject to sheer slavery by the government by the burden of thousands of patients for whom they have to spend the whole day at the hospital, because at the end of 3 years these brightest students from all over India have to earn their MD/MS degrees.
Now the issue which perpetuated the strike. Mrs. Modi had no business directing the Junior Doctors in the wards, writing instructions on the patient's treatment chart, proof of which is available with us. There is already a hierarchy in place which makes every doctor at PMCH answerable. Each Junior Doctor to his MD/MS guide, each faculty to the respective HOD, each HOD to the Superintendent, the Superintendent to the Health Minister/Health Secretary/Health Commissioner. Is any NGO allowed to put their notes on the treatment chart of a patient? Will anyone accept such gross interference in their work? How can an NGO "rebuke the doctors for ignoring the interests of the patients"? What made the media decide for themselves that the junior doctors were working against the patients' interests? Mrs. Modi was only interested in getting government funds allocated to her name and her NGO by projecting that she was working for the patients.
With an important bill regarding the Junior Doctors pending before the cabinet, it was the intention of many vested interests to cause a strike at PMCH and create tension between the junior doctors and the government. A strike at PMCH increases the patients at private hospitals, many of which are on the verge of shutdown because of patients preferring care at PMCH now, unlike ever before. No Junior Doctor ever benefits from a strike. The media need to take a close look at the unhealthy ties between the NGO and the owners of private hospitals of the city who desperately wanted to create a situation of a strike at PMCH.
The Junior Doctors gave the hospital administration adequate time to rectify the damage, only when they had no other option and saw no action on the part of the administration, we had to resort to strike.
We, the Junior Doctors are already overburdened and without even a respectable remuneration, now do we have to accept humiliation just because we are serving those for whom nobody cares?
Now lets get some facts clear:
1.The NGO of Mrs. Modi had no business to rebuke the Junior Doctors, there are appropriate authorities to take up these matters.
2.She is only there to seek government funding for her NGO, not patients' welfare.
3.The patients died not because of the Junior Doctors, but because of inadequate staffing of the hospital by the previous governments. The Junior Doctors are perusing their MD/MS, they are only supposed to complement the work of the faculty. The Junior Doctors are only paid a paltry stipend for their work, the faculty is paid a salary. The media should realize who is responsible.
4.When there is no strike, the media should come forward and see in what inhuman conditions the best medical graduates from all over India work at PMCH, not come here seeking "bytes" only when there is a strike.
5.The media has a responsibility to project the truth, and treat the Junior Doctors as humans. If like the previous governments even the media projects some of the best budding physicians/surgeons in poor light, Bihar will continue to see the brain drain and mass exodus of the able and capable. We need your support, dignity and respect to treat the downtrodden, the poor, the uncared for, we need you to uplift Bihar to its glorious past.
TOGETHER WE CAN, WE SHOULD AND WE WILL.
On Behalf of Junior Doctors Association Patna Medical College
Dr. D. S. Nag
PMCH.
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