Bantwal: Protest against protest - Health services in hospitals to shut down on Oct 7
Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal
Bantwal, Oct 6: The Indian Medical Association, Bantwal unit has announced a day-long shutdown of all medical services in private hospitals in the taluk on Monday October 7, in protest against the allegations levelled against doctors by the locals over the death of gram panchayat vice-president Shakuntala.
GP vice-president Shakuntala
On September 20, Shakuntala was admitted to a hospital for delivery passed away after developing sudden complications. The doctors then advised the family to take her to Mangalore, but she breathed her last on the way. Angered by the incident, the locals staged several protests over the following days demanding justice and alleging doctors of negligence.
Speaking to mediapersons on Saturday October 5, Indian Medical Association president Dr Sureshchandra Shetty said, "It is wrong to blame the entire medical fraternity for the death of one patient. In connection to this case, investigation is going and before it is over, it is wrong to point out at any doctor. The incident has hurt the doctors."
He added, "Negligence by doctor is a technical issue and the decision will be taken by the specialist doctors' technical committee. But without understanding this matter, a few associations by way of protests are confusing people and misguiding them. People who talk about careless of doctors should first see to what extent the doctor is to be blamed in the case.
"Diseases affect people in different ways. In some cases, medicines do not work as expected. When this is the case, it is the patient’s body that is responsible and not the doctor," he said.
"Whenever a patient visits doctor, he or she wants the doctor to show humanity. But when something goes wrong, the patient tries to take legal action against the doctor. With this, the relationship between a patient and a doctor weakens and if this continues, in future the doctors might have to view the patients 'legally' and not with humanity," he added.
"Massive protests and rallies by associations spoil the relationship between doctor and patient. Instead, the associations should work towards giving pro-people amenities for poor patients like increasing the condition of government hospitals, establishing blood banks and so on," Dr Shetty said.
IMA members Dr M M Sharif, Dr Atmaranjan Rai, Dr Vasanth Baliga, Dr Dhananjay Baliga among others were present.