Doctors seek meeting with PM over attacks

The Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) today sought a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ask for a solution to the rising number of attacks on them.
Expressing disappointment with the Bombay High Court giving an option to state-run hospitals to terminate the services of the striking doctors, the FORDA, in its letter, said that it has brought down their "morale".
They said that they want to work and serve but "not at the cost of our lives".
Stating that the cases of attacks on doctors have increased over the past few years, the FORDA, which is an umbrella body of all residents doctors in Delhi, said that the doctors in the country have been working under "constant fear and in a terrorising atmosphere".

"For registering an FIR, or even a complaint we have to undergo lot of harassment. We are very much positive people and we opted this profession to serve but we have been made to work under constant fear and terrorising atmosphere," FORDA President Pankaj Solanki said in the letter.
"We want to work, we want to serve but not at the cost of our lives. The doctors from all over India are ready for a complete shutdown and imagine a country without doctors.

"We request you once against to give us time for a meeting and provide us a solution and not assurances," the letter to the Prime Minister said.

They have also marked the letter to the Union Health Minister J P Nadda and have written a similar letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Yesterday, around 20,000 resident doctors across 40 government hospitals here, except AIIMS, had gone on casual leave en masse in support of their counterparts in Maharashtra who were on strike.
Also, the OPD services in some of the private hospitals, including Sir Ganga Ram hospital today remained suspended following a call by Delhi Medical Association for "OPD bandh".
Nearly 4,000 resident doctors in Maharashtra had stayed away from work since Monday, demanding enhanced security in the wake of a string of attacks on their colleagues by patients' relatives at government hospitals across the state.