Dear Friends,

Greetings from AMC Mangalore.

Since quite some time, we all have been fighting for basic issues on behalf of medical profession, whether rights of our patients or ourselves as Doctors.

One of our fundamental rights is on the very verge of being snatched away, thanks to a Judgment by Lucknow Bench of Allahabad high court on June 2nd, 2016. If not appealed within the time frame, our opportunity to challenge it will be lost. Resident Doctors of KGMC Lucknow, went on a 2 day strike in May end to protest against the apathy of the administration for genuine issues of the Doctors. On grounds that this caused misery to the patients, an Advocate filed a PIL in the High Court, requesting for orders to be passed to end this strike. Then followed the shocking order!

What is appalling is:

1. Orders passed were without hearing the stand of the Doctors.
2. It held the striking Doctors responsible for the deaths that occurred during the period of the strike, even without verifying whether the deaths would have occurred even otherwise, despite the best of care, in the normal course of events
3. A compensation of Rs. 25 Lakhs each was to be paid to each deceased, from the personal funds of the striking Doctors

For any Doctor, there cannot be a more perverse form of Judicial Overreach, by snatching away our fundamental right to protest by striking work!

Despite the overreaching effects of this Judgment, in case it went unchallenged in the Supreme Court, none of the bigger associations representing Doctors have taken the initiative to challenge it before the 90 day period expires, for whatever reasons.

If this Judgment stays, next time violence in Hospital is there and doctors anywhere in the country strike, and some patients die, they will be paid 25 lacs compensation from the salary of the doctors. This is high handedness and persecution at its worst.
There is no mechanism prescribed in this judgment on how a doctor can register his protest and get his genuine grievance redressed.

We all know resident doctors in India are overworked, cheated and exploited by managements of medical colleges, beaten up by relatives, mistreated by their thesis guides. Situation of doctors in Government Jobs OR Privately run hospitals is no different. However now that their only right to protest collectively so that they cannot be discriminated and prosecuted against has been taken away in one stroke. Even Britishers allowed satyagraha, but not our powers that be sitting in their ivory towers. More disturbing however is the callous lethargy amongst our profession. If things continue as they are, I shudder to think of the working conditions of the new generation MBBS/MD doctors in this country

 For more visit www.mlag.in OR https://www.facebook.com/medicoslegalactiongroup