RIMS: Exit route for medical professionals?

Ranchi, June 19: Failure of the police to produce the head of the department of surgery at RIMS, Dr R.N. Singh, today prompted an exasperated judicial magistrate to call for disciplinary action against the officer-in-charge of the Bariatu police station.

The doctor was apparently being summoned to appear before the Additional Motor Accident Claim Tribunal court, to depose in a case of compensation.

Balbant Sahu was hit by a speeding truck on the Booty Road in 1995. He was admitted to RIMS, where his right leg was amputated by Dr R.N. Singh. While Sahu claimed a compensation of Rs 5 lakh, the tribunal was unable to complete the formalities without the deposition of the doctor.

A non-bailable warrant of arrest was eventually issued by the court over a year ago, after the doctor failed to appear before it for all these years.

Today the additional judge, Anil Kumar Choudhary, directed the senior superintendent of police to take departmental action against the OC of the Bariatu police station, who, he observed, is clearly reluctant to execute the warrant.

The petitioner, Sahu, told The Telegraph that he had been running from pillar to post for the compensation in accordance with the Motor Vehicles Act. But only the absence of the doctor?s deposition, he lamented, has stalled the payment for almost a decade.

Dr R.N. Singh, claimed that he had no intention to defy the court. But, he said, he learnt about the non-bailable warrant only yesterday and since he was scheduled to go out of station, he was unable to appear before the court.

This is the same plea that the police took before the court today, where they said that the doctor was out of station. There is no explanation, however, why the police had informed the doctor of the warrant merely 24 hours before the due date, and that too over the telephone.

Caught on the wrong foot, policemen argued that ?arresting? a doctor would have had serious repercussions and could lead to a wild-cat strike by medicos. This, they solemnly declared, would have inconvenienced a large number of people and hence their ?noble? decision to defy the court.

Sources in the court claim that more than 25 warrants remain pending against different doctors at RIMS, all of whom are wanted as witnesses.

Doctors, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they avoided attending courts as it clashed with their duty-hours. ?Our job is to treat patients and not keep attending the courts,? argued one of them, ?so, please keep us away from courts?.