Doctors at civic-run hospital stop working following attack

Resident doctors at the civic-run Sion Hospital here stopped reporting to duty from this evening to protest recent incidents of assault on doctors. Yesterday, a doctor was allegedly beaten up by the relatives following a patient's death at the Sion Hospital. Similar incident took place at government hospital in Dhule some days ago. In a letter to the Dean of Sion Hospital, the resident doctors said they were unable to report to the duty as they couldn't "concentrate" on the work. They stopped working from 7 pm. "The current spate of attacks on resident doctors is worrisome. We are not able to concentrate, hence we have decided not to report to the duty (at Sion Hospital)....There is urgent need to beef up security at government hospitals," an office-bearer of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors said. The Bombay High Court has restrained resident doctors in the state from going on a strike till a 'grievance cell' constituted by the government to look into their problems submits its report. The doctors, therefore, can not go on strike officially. Medical Education Minister Girish Mahajan told PTI, "The attacks on resident doctors are unfortunate and assailants should not be spared....We are trying to provide more security to doctors.