Doctors stage demonstration in Salem

http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/28/stories/2008122855050600.htm

Doctors stage demonstration in Salem

Special Correspondent

They were seeking arrest of those responsible for the attack on December 21

Photo: E. Lakshmi Narayanan 

Raising voice: Members of Tamil Nadu Government Doctors’ Association staging a demonstration in Salem on Saturday in support of their demands. —

SALEM: Doctors and paramedical staff, working in Government Medical College Hospital here and primary health centres (PHC) in Salem district, boycotted out-patient treatment for two hours in the morning on Saturday demanding the arrest of those who attacked doctors and paramedical staff following the rumour-triggered violence during the first phase of pulse polio campaign on December 21.

They also staged a demonstration. The doctors demanded the arrest of those who were responsible for spreading rumours about pulse polio drops and those who manhandled the doctors on duty.

They also insisted on the arrest of anti-socials who assaulted the pharmacist in the Kannankurichi PHC and a doctor at K.R. Thoppur PHC on the same day.

Complaint

They wanted the police to act on the complaint filed by the Chief Medical Officer of the hospital against those who caused damage in the hospital and manhandled the doctors on duty then.

These anti-socials, they pointed out, should be booked under the Hospital Protection Act immediately.

Members of the Salem branch of the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association, who organised the stir, demanded police protection to the doctors and other paramedical staff on duty in such extraordinary circumstances.

They claimed that a few persons owing allegiance to a particular political party had threatened the medical staff on duty on December 21 when anxious parents carrying their children, who were administered polio drops, thronged the hospitals in the district following rumours that a child died in the neighbouring Erode district.

The doctors also threatened to boycott the second phase of the pulse polio campaign in the district if they were not given proper protection.

The members of the Salem unit of the Tamil Nadu Village Health Nurses Association also staged a demonstration in the city demanding the arrest of those who spread rumours about pulse polio drops and also indulged in violence on December 21.

Meanwhile, Salem city police arrested one person for manhandling a pharmacist at the Kannankurichi PHC.