BS RAWAT
The Resident Doctors Association (RDA) of Delhi government's Maharishi Valmiki Hospital have withdrawn all essential and non-essential services in the hospital. This protest is in view of no action having been taken against a patient and her attendant after they allegedly assaulted a doctor on Saturday. This is despite a letter written by the doctors' association to the hospital's medical superintendent (MS) on Tuesday.

The notice to the MS to withdraw the services stated, “Since no confirmation has been made till date, we are left with no alternative but to withdraw residents from essential services from today at 10 am. For which intimation was given to you on September 26 and again on September 28.”

“We are disheartened in the way this issue is being handled. The concerned resident is under severe mental stress and things may worsen for him if he doesn’t get institutional support on priority,” the letter reads.

“Who will be responsible if something goes wrong with the resident in this period? We don’t want the patients to suffer and we want to resume our duties at the earliest but not at the cost of threat to our lives, integrity and respect towards  the profession,” it warned.

“We need concrete action from your side in this matter as it is a matter of security of all residents on duty. Kindly escalate the process in this matter and  an institutional FIR must be lodged without further delay and an action must be taken on the accused,” the RDA urged in the letter.

The RDA has demanded to book the assailants without delay under various sections of IPC and Epidemic Diseases Act.