Anguished medical fraternity asks min to apologise to Dr Raj Bahadur

Ludhiana: “Anguished and hurt” by the “public humiliation” of Dr Raj Bahadur Gaur, the doctors, health department officials, medical teachers, and Indian Medical Association (IMA) office-bearers of the district have called out Punjab health minister’s Chetan Singh Jouremajra for his “derogotry behavior” that forced the vice-chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) to resign.
They have asked the minister to apologise to Dr Raj Bahadur. Former senior medical officer Ashwani said: “Those who have worked in the public sector have experienced being the target of not only the polical system but also all and sundry linked with any celebrity. However, it was most unfortunate to see a minister stoop so low and humiliate a distinguished doctor. The frequent attacks on doctors and the other people in government service need to be condemned strongly.”
Former Punjab Medical Council president Dr G S Grewal said: “If the ministers turn unruly, what will happen to common society. The health minister should apologise for his misbehaviour and concentrate on improving the health infrastructure instead of going after cheap publicity.”
Communist Party of India (CPI) secretary D P Maur said: “This behaviour of the minister amounts to a publicity stunt, which will create a bad precedence in society. He should have instead held a dialogue with the V-C, inquired about the issues being faced by the university, and promised him some solutions. Dr Gaur is an upright person with no charges of corruption. The minister should apologise to him.”
Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) senior vice-president Dr Arun Mitra, who is also former chairman of the Punjab Medical Council’s ethical committee, said that: “Dr Raj Bahadur is an excellent surgeon, who has worked with dedication and clean record. The ills of the healthcare system are because of poor funding by the government and not because of the vice-chancellor. In the just announced Punjab budget of the minister’s Aam Aadmi Party government, the allocation to healthcare is only 3.03%, while it should be at least 11%. With this meagre amount, one can only expect to find torn sheets and mattresses on hospital beds.”
After complaints about lack that of cleanliness in the hospital wards, the state health minister had barged into the government hospital with the television press and asked Dr Raj Bahadur to lay on a patient’s bed in front of the cameramen.
A day after this humiliation on camera, the vice-chancellor resigned.