Resume work by Saturday morning: HC to striking doctors

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Friday gave the striking resident doctors time till 8 am on Saturday to resume duties without fearing any punitive action including suspension. But those individual doctors who choose to continue their “mass leave’’ on Saturday after 8 am, run the risk of attracting strict action including suspension or expulsion.
The court gave them another night to sleep over their decision on whether to resume work, after Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) president Dr Y Kabra and secretary Dr Swapnil Meshram said they would endeavour to see that all resident doctors are back in the hospitals by 8 am on March 25.Both, also submitted their affidavits which said that MARD has “no objection of management taking any action against individual doctors who continue on mass leave,'' after the Saturday deadline. The association said it had requested all doctors to rejoin work last night after the HC order was made available. They said that the mass leave was not called by the association and six of its office bearers had resumed work last night.
A bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice Girish Kulkarni had initially reprimanded, but later appreciated, MARD for its effort to end the mass leave. After advocate Datta Mane appearing for a public interest litigant complained that the strike was still on despite assurances given by the association on Thursday, the HC asked MARD to state on oath, its stand which MARD did by filing the affidavit by 3 pm.
Advocate S S Pakale appearing for the BMC said that out of 625 resident doctors in its hospitals, 72 reported to duty on March 22, 82 on March 23 and only 29 on March 24.
He also added that according to figures given by Sion hospital dean Dr S Merchant, 53 patients in KEM Hospital, 48 in Sion and 37 in Nair had died during the strike duration this week in Mumbai. But these 138 deaths were not on account of the strike, he clarified later.
Advocate General Rohit Deo said that the Chief Minister too had requested doctors to resume on Wednesday and despite assuring him too, the doctors have remained unrelenting. “This is a kind of subterfuge,’’ said Deo.
Association of Medical Consultants which has over 8000 members, intervened in the matter. After hearing its counsel Sujay Kantawalla the HC requested the association to help resident doctors understand their duties and work at an “amicable resolution’’ of the issue.
The bench on Thursday had questioned the government for “ignoring its doctors’’ and putting them in danger by not complying with a June 2016 order to deploy more security at civic and state hospitals, but after the AG said 1100 new armed guards were to be deployed in April, 500 by April 5, had asked the doctors to immediately resume work. It had recorded as an assurance by MARD advocate Rahul Totala that the association would request all doctors to report back at work.