By IANS
Vadodara (Gujarat) : Nearly 1,000 doctors working in private hospitals here struck work Tuesday, protesting a mob attack on a doctor. They submitted a memorandum to the district collector to frame laws to safeguard their community.
The Vadodara Doctors Association, led by its president Paresh Golwala and senior member V.C. Patel, met District Collector Rajiv Topna and submitted a memorandum on the incident of attack on Tushar Shah and his clinic ‘Home ICU’ here last Saturday.
In the memorandum, the doctors said such attacks had become a recurring feature, and whenever a patient died they were being targeted.
They also enclosed a copy of the Andhra Pradesh Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (prevention of violence and damage to property) Ordinance.
The ordinance declares doctors as public servants and has made attack on them a non-bailable offence with three-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs.50,000 as punishment. The ordinance also prohibits damage to properties of government and private hospitals/nursing homes, and says the costs of damages should be recovered from the attackers.
The protesting doctors demanded that a similar ordinance be issued in Gujarat to protect doctors from assaults.
While Golwala and Patel met Topna, other doctors shouted slogans outside the district collector’s office gate.
Topno eventually came out and told the angry doctors that the issue would be taken up with the state government and the police.
Last Saturday, a mob led by Jha Bharvad, city unit president of National Students Union of India (NSUI), attacked Tushar Shah and his clinic after a patient, Anil Chauhan, died following a surgery on him.
The patient’s relatives said Shah’s lackadaisical approach had caused Chauhan’s death.
Bharvad and six others were arrested after Shah filed a police complaint.
While all private hospitals and clinics were closed for the day, the government hospitals functioned normally.