M A I N   N E W S

Abhinav shoots another gold
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 28
Ace shooter Abhinav Bindra won the gold, setting a new record in 10 metre.177 calibre rifle men’s event at the fourth Commonwealth Shooting Championships at Bisley, UK. He shot a brilliant 594 which was capped by an exceptional 102.8 in the finals to bring the total to 696.8. 

The previous record holder, Cristophe Hector of England came a poor second, trailing by a good 11.9 points with a score of 684.9 Charan Singh of India took the bronze.

Abhinav had won gold for the Indian team in the 10 metre rifle men’s .177 calibre team event at the start of the championships. 

1 killed, 6 hurt in police firing
Tribune News Service

Mangalore (Uttaranchal), August 28
One person was killed and six others, including two policemen, were injured in police firing at Mangalore this afternoon. The Uttaranchal police resorted to firing on an irate mob which had blocked the Delhi-Hardwar national highway near Roorkee to demand the exclusion of Hardwar district from the newly created state of Uttaranchal.

Farmers belonging to the BKU, workers of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and Samajwadi Party, had been agitating for the past week and had disrupted traffic on the national highway. They had pitched tents on the road and dug the highway at several places. 

DISTURBING TRENDS - II
Corporate hospitals, insurance men behind attacks on docs?
Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 28
In Haryana, incidents of assault on doctors took a serious turn in 1997 when two doctors were murdered by agitated relatives and friends of patients who died while under treatment.

One of these cases was reported from Faridabad where Dr Dhingra was murdered while in the same year, another doctor, Dr Raman Bhandari, was also allegedly killed by agitated relations and friends of a patients whom he could not cure. This incident took place in Bhiwani.

“The situation is equally disturbing in Haryana, “ says Dr D.S. Jaspal, president of the Haryana chapter of the Indian Medical Association. Though compared to Punjab, the healthcare infrastructure in the private sector is not that developed in Haryana, still the incidence of assaults on doctors and private clinics, nursing homes and private hospitals has been rising sharply.

“We are apprehensive of treating road accident and emergency cases because of the threat of attack looming large all the time,” he says maintaining that Haryana was one of the first few states where violence against members of the medical fraternity started.

“We started witnessing such incidents in 1993 when a senior government doctor was assaulted at Ambala following the death of a road accident victim on the way to the PGI,” says Dr Jaspal recalling that the patient had multiple fractures and multiple wounds.

In 1997, a nursing home was set on fire and a doctor assaulted after patient died in it. This incident took place in 1997. A case under Section 304-A of the IPC was registered against the doctor concerned.

In yet another case, a child , who was seriously injured after being run over by a truck, died on the way to the PGI from Pehowa. An agitated mob attacked the hospital and manhandled the doctor. A case under Section304-A of the IPC was registered against him.

In yet another case reported from Ismailabad, besides the hospital, the private car of the doctor was burnt after a heart attack patient died on the way to a referral hospital. Early this year, a case was registered under Section 304 of the IPC against an orthopaedic surgeon of Kurukshetra after a patient died following surgery. Later the case was changed to Section 304-A of the IPC.

There was yet another case reported from Karnal in July this year. It was a post-operation death case.

Dr Jaspal agrees that there is some degree of “dissatisfaction” among relations of critically ill patients about the treatment given. “There appears to be a nexus between corporate hospitals and insurance people which appears to be closely linked to attacks on doctors and their clinics.

Multinational corporate houses want small nursing homes to disappear rather than provide door service to middle class and lower middle class patients. Multinational companies and corporate houses want to monopolise the healthcare system in the country.

According to Dr Jaspal if the present trend of attacks, assault on doctors and registration of cases under Section 304, IPC, continues, the medical fraternity will hesitate to treat accident victims and deal with other emergencies. The trend of registering cases under Section 304 merely on the complaint of relations has demoralised the medical fraternity. It is unfair to blame doctors for every death in the nursing home.

“We are dealing with the human body and nothing can be guaranteed and anything can go wrong any time. As professionals, we always try our best but life and death are in the hands of God. Here I would like to appeal to members of the medical fraternity not to make tall claims about treatment. We should explain all modalities and limitations of treatment to the patient, his relatives and friends,” concludes Dr Jaspal.

“If the relations think there is negligence they can approach the ethics committee of the Indian Medical Association or take action under the Consumer Protection Act.

In the case of any complaint, the police should refer the case to a committee of medical professionals consisting of representatives of the government hospital and the president of the local branch of the IMA. If there is a prima facie evidence of any negligence, only then should a case under Section 304-A be registered, “ suggests Dr G.S. Kochhar, president of the Chandigarh chapter of the IMA.

He said that a deputation of the Chandigarh chapter had met the SSP some time ago and urged him that no case under Section 304 or 304-A of the IPC should be registered against any medical practitioner until a prima facie charge of negligence had been established by a competent authority. To be concluded