PMCH medicos resume duty

Patna: The junior residents of the Patna Medical College & Hospital (PMCH) resumed work on Thursday. The medicos had gone on a flash strike Wednesday after one of their colleagues, Dr Alok Kumar, had a bloody brawl with PMCH principal Dr S N Sinha on the issue of parking near the central emergency of the hospital. The medicos have threatened indefinite strike if no action is taken against the principal in three days."The video footage does show exchange of blows between the principal and the doctor. It was clear from the footage that the principal first slapped Dr Alok, who was arguing with him while sitting on his bike. If the doctor was misbehaving with him, the principal could hand him over to the police. Why did he took into his hands," a PG student of medicine department said. There is no formal association of junior doctors."An association existed but it was dissolved in May this year as most of the office-bearers had passed out. We are in the process of forming a new association and will meet the department officials soon," he said. Meanwhile, Dr Alok was discharged from hospital on Thursday after treatment. He was admitted to the emergency ward by surgeon-on-duty Dr Gopal Paswan, who said, "Dr Alok complained of problem in his ear. When ENT specialist was called for investigation, it was found that the tympanic membrane of his left ear had ruptured. This may require surgery." Dr Gopal said he also had bruises and complained of vomiting tendency and dizziness. "Some junior doctors didn't join till evening. Therefore, on our request, Patna civil surgeon had sent 15 doctors. They are also serving in the central emergency. No surgery was postponed," PMCH superintendent Dr Lakhindra Prasad said. Dr Sinha, on the other hand, said he had not received any formal information from students and those who boycotted work would get their stipend cut. Deputy secretary-cum-spokesperson of health department Anil Kumar said, "The prinicipal secretary is out of town. An enquiry will be done after he arrives. Action will be taken against those found guilty."The state IMA has called for a 'viable solution' so that such incidents are not repeated in future. "Such incidents, which are very unfortunate, take place more often than not. Steps must be taken to ensure proper principal-students relationship," said state IMA secretary Dr Harihar Dikshit