AIIMS resident doctors end strike after written apology

New Delhi: The resident doctors ended their strike on Saturday night and “requested” the AIIMS director to keep Monday as a working day so that surgeries cancelled on Friday could be scheduled then.

However, crucial healthcare services at AIIMS remained affected for the third consecutive day on Saturday even as many other resident doctors reportedly submitted individual complaint letters against the chief of the ophthalmology department.

The strike, which called for the suspension of Dr Atul Kumar, the chief of Rajendra Prasad Centre (RPC) for Ophthalmic Sci-ences at AIIMS, who had slapped one of their colleagues in front of patients and other staffers, was called off after he was replaced by Dr Pradeep Sharma until such time as an enquiry into the incident is completed.

All routine surgeries remained cancelled and out-patient clinics functioned in a restricted manner. Many patients, who had come from far off places and from other states, were sent back from the hospital owing to the strike. Only emergency and ICU services remained functional.

Dr Kumar, who heads a department at the premier institute, has tendered a written apology for assaulting the resident doctor and proceeded on leave on the directions of an internal probe panel.

The resident doctors, who have been on the protest strike since Thursday evening, paid no heed to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Randeep Guleria’s appeal to call off their strike and return to work.

The Resident Doctors Association (RDA) also claimed that on Friday afternoon, at least 35 complaint letters had been submitted to the enquiry committee urging it to probe the incident.

In a letter to the Faculty Association AIIMS (FAIIMS), the RDA alleged that Dr Kumar has been accused of “groping female residents, passing derogatory remarks, and leaking questions of senior residency program to his favourite candidates.”

The RDA has written to Union health minister J.P. Nadda, who is also the president of AIIMS, seeking revocation of Padmashree and Dr BC Roy awards to the senior doctor.

“We reprimand all his actions and request you to consider revoking his BC Roy and Padmashree awards, as we believe that he is not worthy of holding such prestigious awards,” they said in their letter.