‘What if patients die? Can you bring them back to life?’: Bombay HC orders resident doctors to call off strike

Services hit as Maharashtra resident doctors begin strike over registration of homoeopaths

NEW DELHI: The Bombay high court on Thursday expressed concern over the impact of the Maharashtra resident doctors’ strike on patients and warned the protesting doctors that it would order their salaries to be stopped if they failed to return to work immediately.”We are concerned about the health of thousands of patients as well as the people of Maharashtra,” a bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad said.Questioning the doctors’ decision to strike, the bench asked, “Why are you resorting to a strike at the cost of patients? Even if your agitation succeeds tomorrow, will you be able to bring back the lives of patients who may have died during the strike? Can the protesting doctors bring the dead back to life?”The bench, which took suo motu cognisance of the matter, also noted that the doctors had warned of suspending services in intensive care units if the deadlock with the Maharashtra government continued.Following the high court’s observations, the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) and the Indian Medical Association announced that the strike would be called off.The bench appointed senior counsel Vineet Naik and advocate Amogh Singh as amici curiae to assist the court and directed them to prepare a petition so that appropriate directions could be issued to prevent doctors from resorting to such strikes in the future. The matter has been posted for further hearing on September 8.MARD launched an indefinite strike on Wednesday to protest the Maharashtra government’s decision to allow homoeopaths to register with the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) and prescribe allopathic medicines.

Advocate general Milind Sathe told the court that, in an interim order passed last year, the high court had declined to stay the registration of eligible homoeopaths with the MMC and that the petition challenging the move remains pending.The court assured the doctors that the bench hearing the pending petition would take up the matter and decide it expeditiously.On June 30, the MMC issued a notification permitting homoeopaths who complete a six-month Certificate Course in Modern Pharmacology to prescribe modern medicines.(With PTI inputs)