PCMS doctors go on strike in Kapurthala govt hospitals

Phagwara, May 4

Hundreds of patients visiting government hospitals in Kapurthala district had to face great inconvenience as all doctors belonging to the Punjab Civil Medical Services Association (PCMSA) led by district president Dr Amanjot Kaur on Saturday went on strike and boycotted all except emergency services at the Civil Hospitals in Kapurthala, Phagwara and Bholath in protest against misbehaviour done by relatives of a patient with Dr Manjeet Nagra (gynaecologist) at the Civil Hospital in Phagwara on April 26.

In Phagwara, all staff members of the Civil Hospital led by Dr Kirandeep Kaur, president of the PCMSA (Phagwara), staged a dharna in the hospital.

The protesters said a patient, Kirti, a resident of Thana Mohalla at Lehragaga in Sangrur district, was admitted to the hospital’s gynaecology department for delivery. Some relatives of Kirti misbehaved with Dr Manjeet Nagra, Medical Officer (gyane), and obstructed her from discharging her duties.

They were asking for taking legal action against the relatives of the patient. The protesting doctors threatened to continue their strike till a case is registered against the culprits responsible for misbehaving with the doctor. Strikes were also observed in all other hospitals of Kapurthala district.

Later, strikes and dharnas in the entire district were lifted only after the intervention of Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar Panchal and SDM Jashanjit Singh. The police acting on the written complaint lodged by Dr Manjit Nagra registered a case under Sections 353, 186, 506, 341 and 149 of the IPC and Sections 3 and 4 of the Punjab Protection of Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill 2008 against more than two dozen unknown persons. Four of them were identified as Loveleen Sharma, Gurwinder Singh of Lehragaga (Sangrur), Lalit Madan and mother of the patient Kirti this afternoon.