The medical community’s stir at Shivaji Park on Sunday MUMBAI: In the last 18 months, there have been at least 12 incidents of violence against resident doctors in Maharashtra 's public medical schools. A patient's father in March tried to choke a resident doctor in Pimpri after she suggested that his daughter undergo a CT scan. An angry sister on Sunday morning threw a bloodied gauze from her brother's wound at a resident doctor's face and scratched her arm at Sion hospital.
"Resident doctors are the first point of contact for most patients in public hospitals , which are overcrowded and have poor infrastructure. A frustrated patient and his/her relatives then lash out at the resident doctor," said medico-legal expert Dr Lalit Kapoor from Association of Medical Consultants . The ongoing strike to express solidarity for the raped and murdered doctor from RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata has, hence, sought to focus on the inadequate security arrangements and non-functional CCTVs in the state's medical colleges.
A representative of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors recalled how during the pandemic, female resident doctors from one of the public hospitals were harassed by a food delivery agent. "He would follow them from the hospital to the hostel and, as there was no security guard at the gate, he would enter the hostel building and ring the doorbells," said the doctor. An Indian Medical Association study has said that 75% of the doctors across the country have fac.