Mumbai: Resident doctors call off strike as controversial JJ doc transferred

Representation Pic

After two weeks of protests by resident doctors of JJ Hospital against Dr Mahendra Kura, the head of the dermatology department, over allegations of harassment and medical negligence, their struggles paid off as Dr Kura was transferred from the hospital to Sambhaji Nagar on Thursday.

The development comes on the same day when about 900 resident doctors at JJ Hospital struck work, protesting the government's delayed response in the matter even after a report verifying the allegations was submitted to the government by the medical education department on December 19. The strike severely affected the Out-Patient-Department (OPD) services in the hospital.

Dr Pallavi Saple, the dean of the hospital, spoke to mid-day for the first time since the round of allegations against Dr Kura began in mid-December. Confirming the development, she said, "We received the [transfer] order by evening and we have issued a relieving order from our end as well." The resident doctor's strike on Thursday was in solidarity with 21 others from the department who have been on strike since a fortnight. While the emergency service ran smoothly on the day of the mass strike, faculty and senior residents were deployed at the OPD services to fill in the gaps created by the strike.

According to Dr Saple on any given day, the hospital sees around 1,500 patients in the OPD. The tensions between the resident doctors and the hospital authorities have been building up on the issue of removal of Dr Kura as the head of the dermatology department. "We are relieved he has left JJ but now he will be somewhere else, likely still in a position of power. He will still be in the system and that is unfortunate. We hope there is behavioural change in him wherever he is," said Dr Shrikant, one of the 21 doctors on strike.

On the part of the hospital administration, Dr Saple said, it had started scouring for past complaints as soon as the issue was flagged earlier in the month. "There was no written record found. Nonetheless, the medical education department was alerted and an investigative team was immediately sent to the hospital," she said. The allegations were investigated by DMER joint director Dr Ajay Chandanwale with the help of the faculty, who had also backed the claims made by the resident doctors.

900
No of resident doctors who had gone on strike