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Kochi: Doctors’ strike total, peaceful

Emergency services were not affected.

KOCHI: The 24-hour strike by doctors and nurses across the state which began at 6 am on Monday protesting the mob attack on doctors in Kolkata was total and peaceful.

However, emergency services, including casualty and operations, were not affected while doctors restricted the in-patient attendance to one visit in the morning.

The strike was led by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) state chapter and supported by the Tra-ined Nurses Association of India (TNAI).

IMA national leadership gave the call for the nation-wide strike with the support of the Indian Dental Association. The dental clinics too remained closed for 24-hours. Medical students also joined them.

The medicos are demanding a Central Act to insulate them from such attacks and want hospitals to be declared special protection zones.

In government hospitals including medical colleges, doctors boycotted out-patient wing for two hours in the morning and attended to patients after that as the notice for the strike had not been given one week in advance which is mandatory. DC understands the state government had agreed to this sort of token protests.

In several government hospitals, doctors reported at the OP by around 10 am, which caught the uninformed patients who had come to hospitals early on unawares. Before any rumblings erupted in the restive crowd, doctors reported at the OP. However, it took some time for them to clear the backlog.

Director of Health Services Dr R.L. Saritha said on Monday evening that no untoward incident was reported from over 1,000 government hospitals across the state.

“No district medical officer submitted any such reports,” she said.

In private hospitals, OP wings were affected totally since doctors boycotted them for 24 hours. However, the doctors in these hospitals attended to emergency services.

In district headquarters, doctors held protest meetings while in the state capital they held a protest meeting before the Raj Bhavan.

IMA state president Dr M. E. Sugathan said that all 32,000 members of State IMA participated in the strike. Doctors' associations like KGMOA, KGMCTA, KGIMOA, KGSDA and all speciality doctors associations too participated in the strike.

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