Doctor’s slap triggers protest at PGI

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 17

Around 70 operation theatre (OT) technicians of the PGI staged a protest outside the Director’s office here this afternoon after a junior resident doctor allegedly manhandled a technician in an OT.

In a complaint submitted to the PGI Director, a copy of which is with Chandigarh Tribune, the OT technicians alleged that the junior resident from the Department of Anaesthesia manhandled OT technician Bikram Singh in the OT of the Advanced Trauma Centre during an orthopaedic surgery. 

“It is highly unfortunate that we are subjected to these kind of incidents frequently,” read the complaint submitted by the OT Technical Staff Association to the PGI Director. They demanded strong action against the accused doctor, failing which, they said, they would launch an agitation. Talking to Chandigarh Tribune, Manglesh Sharma, president of the OT Technical Staff Association, PGI, said this was not the first time such an incident had occurred. “Earlier, on three occasions, our colleagues have been manhandled. But this time, we will not tolerate it. We are demanding that the accused doctor be suspended,” Sharma said.

He said after the technicians staged a protest, Dr GD Puri, Head of the Anaesthesia Department, called a meeting with representatives of the OT Technical Staff Association.

PGI spokesperson Manju Wadwalkar said the Deputy Director, Administration, Amitabh Avasthi, called another meeting of the technicians in the evening and set up a four-member committee, comprising two OT technicians and two doctors, to look into the matter.

The OT technicians said they informed the Deputy Director, Administration, that in case suitable action was not taken against the accused doctor within three days, they would be forced to go on mass casual leave as a mark of protest.

Sharma said the OT technicians would hold a candlelight march at 5 pm tomorrow from the Gol Market on the PGI campus to Kairon Block to express solidarity with their colleague.