The striking doctors of the Osmania, Niloufer and Gandhi hospitals have called off their 18-day strike, after the authorities concerned bowed down to their demands.
Emerging from a meeting with the officials concerned, a senior doctor said that the Special Protection Forces (SPF) would be re-deployed to protect Niloufer's doctors from ill-tempered relatives/associates of patients. He stated that the SPF would be in place by tomorrow (Tuesday), but that the police are yet to decide on how many personnel would be deployed.
The meeting had reportedly decided to instate a special committee comprising the representatives of the police department, the doctors' assiciations and the Niloufer authorities, that would probe the issue of the doctors' security, and put forth their recommendations soon. Further action taken by the government and the hospitals' management will depend upon the recommendations of the committee.
It was also decided that another committee would be formed to improve the services provided by the hospital.
Reacting to media reports that said that
children had lost their lives because of the boycott of emergency services by the striking doctors, the senior doctor said that 8-10 children died at the Niloufer Hospital every day as they were brought to the hospital at critical stages and were beyond the reach of medicine.
He clarified that the death of the children had nothing to do with the doctors' strike.
The doctors had been striking for 18 days under the banner of Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJDA), demanding that the SPF that was withdrawn in 2007 be reinstated, as the frustrated associates of patients were resorting to attacking the doctors.
The medical services were hit at the Osmania, Gandhi, Niloufer and Government maternity hospitals at Pitlaburz and Sultan Bazar, and at the MGM Warangal hospital.