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Under Attack From Patients' Families, AIIMS Doctors Wear Helmets To Work

"Prevention is better than cure."
ANI/Twitter

Even as 4,000 resident doctors in Maharashtra's government hospitals stayed away from duty to protest the incidents of attack on their colleagues, doctors in Delhi have turned up at AIIMS hospital wearing helmets. This was a safety measure to protect them from the attacks that has been on the rise for the last couple of days.

Dr Vijay Gurjar of AIIMS told DNA that instead of providing security to resident doctors at their workplace, the government is threatening them.

"We, resident doctors at AIIMS are forced to work with helmets in the emergency department as we don't want to lose our vision and life. Prevention is better than cure," he said.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra government has issued an ultimatum to its doctors-- telling them that they will lose six months' salary if they don't report for work by 8 pm today.

Thousands of doctors have been on mass casual leave since Sunday. They are demanding more security at the workplace after their colleagues in a few hospitals faced attack. However, with barely any doctors present at the hospitals, the strike has increased the plight of patients.

"My wife is suffering burn injuries and it's been four days now. She is not being treated," relative of one of the patients outside Sion Hospital told ANI.

The strike was triggered after a doctor from Sion hospital was attacked by a patient's relatives. Days before that, a similar incident incident had been reported from Dhule.

Over the last three days, there has been at least five attacks on resident doctors, Sagar Mundada, state President of Indian Medical Association (Youth) told reporters.

The Mumbai civic body BMC has promised to make arrangements for the security of doctors. They said they are arranging for additional armed forces from the state government to deploy at various hospitals. Meanwhile, Additional Municipal Commissioner IA Kundan has said only two relatives of any patient shall be permitted with special passes.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.