Patients bear brunt of doctors' strike in Nepal

Saptari, Dec 10 (ANI): Patients are suffering in Nepal's Saptari district as doctors went on strike after they were beaten up by police for supporting the Madhesi community that has been protesting against country's new constitution since it was adopted in September 2015. Doctors and medical staff of government and private hospitals and clinics have been on strike for the last 16 days, protesting the act of police officers who thrashed few doctors of Gajendra Narayan Singh Sagarmatha Zonal Hospital for supporting the protesting Madhesi community. People from ethnic Madhesi groups living along the border with India began protests saying Nepal's first republican charter did not accommodate their interests. They have called the seven-province model of the new constitution discriminatory. The medical staff demanded suspension of top police officers of the district to end their strike.