Junior doctors in Andhra Pradesh to launch silent protest against attacks from July 15

Junior doctors in Andhra Pradesh to launch silent protest from July 15

Members of the Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctors’ Association (APJUDA) have decided to stage a silent protest from July 15 (Monday) across the State calling for stringent measures in place to prevent attacks on them in future.

On Thursday night, kin of a patient who died at the new Government General Hospital in Vijayawada reportedly attacked the duty doctor and other staff. The junior doctors, under Siddharth Medical College’s APJUDA leaders, have been protesting on the college campus since Friday morning.

In a letter addressed to principals of all the government medical colleges and the Directorate of Medical Education on Saturday, the association, expressing concern at the ongoing attacks on doctors, said all elective procedures and OPD services would be suspended from Monday. But, after the four accused persons in the case were arrested on Saturday and the Directorate of Medical Education assured them of justice, the members decided to suspend the strike for now.

“These days, attacks on doctors have become so common that they have been overlooked by both the government and the public. We are launching the protest to bring our issues back into focus and to raise awareness among the public on what we are going through,” said the association’s general secretary P. Achyuth.

Though the State has the A.P. Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property Act), 2008, it is not being implemented, the members alleged.

The association’s main demand is that a G.O. like the one issued in Telangana in 2019, which provided for deployment of Telangana State Special Protection Force at all the government hospitals, should be issued in Andhra Pradesh as well to prevent such attacks on doctors in future.

The members are planning to take the security, along with their issues, to the notice of Health Minister Y. Satya Kumar Yadav, who is expected to visit Visakhapatnam on Monday.