The growing insecurity among doctors took them to the door of the state's seniormost police officer in less than a month's time.

A joint delegation of the state chapter of Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Bihar Health Services Association (BHSA) on Friday met director-general of police (DGP) P.K. Thakur to seek his intervention in the growing number of atrocities against the doctor community and the lack of police inaction in majority of such cases.

The delegation comprised doctors, including the chairman of the IMA services committee, Ajay Kumar, member of the Medical Council of India (MCI) Sahjanand Prasad Singh, and secretary of the IMA's state chapter, Harihar Dixit, among others.

Doctors had discussed the same issue with the DGP on August 7. Thakur had then assured them of keeping them safe.

"The state failed to address the security concerns of doctors and that is why we have no other option but to frequent the police headquarters to raise the security issue," said IMA president Sachchidanand Kumar.

"Yesterday, an ambulance driver was beaten up by middlemen who had taken a patient from a rural area. The middlemen wanted to take the patient to some private hospital but the ambulance driver did not support them. Any incident can happen in the daylight in PMCH and the private security force remains idle in such situations. We had provided a list of super-sensitive hospitals to the health department in which PMCH was at the top. We demanded that the government provide SAP jawans in these hospitals but our demand has still not been entertained," added Sachchidanand.

IMA member Ajay Kumar said doctors in the Jokihaat-based primary health centre in Araria district were still working from the additional primary health centre instead of the primary health centre (PHC).

"The PHC work has got hampered and people in the vicinity are not getting necessary healthcare services from the centre but doctors are not to be held responsible for this. Doctors can only provide treatment but if they feel insecure, it becomes the government's responsibility to take steps to make them feel secure. Some people attacked the Jokihaat-based doctors in the hospital. The attackers had locked the doctors in the PHC. Police have not arrested anyone for the murder of doctor S.B. Singh at Sangrampur primary health centre in East Champaran. The police could not do anything in Singh's case even after he lodged a complaint regarding the attack," said Ajay Kumar.

Ayush (homoeopathy, unani, yoga and naturopathy) doctors are treating patients at Jokihaat primary health centre. No operation is being performed there because of the absence of MBBS doctors.