Patna High Court on Tuesday instructed social activist Vikas Chandra to produce an earlier order from the court directing Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) doctors and employees to remain in uniform while on duty.
Following yet another junior doctors' strike at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) this May, activist Chandra, popularly known as Guddu Baba, brought to the court's attention newspaper clippings on the agitation. The high court took up the matter suo motu.
Guddu has been raising issues concerning PMCH and other medical colleges time and again. It was disposing one of his PILs in 2000 that the division bench of Justice Shashank Kumar Singh and Justice S.K. Katriar passed the order for PMCH employees to remain in uniform while on duty.
The division bench of Acting Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and Justice Anjana Mishra in an earlier hearing observed that frequent strikes called by doctors citing security problems was concerning. The government was directed to file an affidavit stating what arrangements have been made for the security of the doctors.
The court sought CDs with video footage of the May 15 brawl between attendants and doctors that led to the junior doctors' strike. The hospital administration submitted it for the court's perusal and a copy was also provided to Guddu.
Guddu informed the court on Tuesday that it was difficult to differentiate between the doctors from the attendants and outsiders from the CDs as none of PMCH employees were in uniform. He then drew the court's attention to the 2000 order, prompting the court direction to him for producing a copy before the bench on July 26, the next date of hearing.
When The Telegraph asked PMCH superintendent Lakhendra Prasad on why doctors were not wearing hospitals on duty, he said: "There is hardly any doctor who wears uniform at the hospital. But I can do nothing in this case. The medical college principal (S.N. Sinha) has to take action."
Principal Sinha stressed senior doctors followed the code and mostly the junior doctors violated it. "Now that Patna High Court has taken cognisance of the matter, we will strictly implement the dress code. But some of the doctors do not wear uniforms thinking they will be identified by patients' attendants in case of trouble."
Additional reporting by Shuchismita Chakraborty
