After a day of high drama and appeal from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) requested all its members to resume work.
"This wave of agitation is going on since Monday. We think considering patient care and obeying the high court decision, it is high time we resumed our duties. We, representatives of central MARD, request all resident doctors all over Maharashtra to resume duties to avoid any untoward incidence," MARD said in a letter to its members.
The protests triggered in Maharashtra after the relatives of a patient beat up a doctor in Dhule.
On Thursday, 40,000 doctors in Maharashtra and 20,000 in Delhi went on mass leave. In Maharashtra, resident doctors continued their strike on Thursday despite an assurance by Fadnavis and the Bombay High Court (HC) that their safety concerns would be addressed till late in the night but gave in at the end.
Thursday was the fourth day of the strike, which doctors call as mass bunking, to protest against the attacks on them by relatives of patients. In Mumbai, of the 4,000 resident doctors who absented themselves from work, around 105 rejoined duty on Thursday.
IA Kundan, Additional Municipal Commissioner, Mumbai, confirmed that the while the civic body had served show-cause notices to 508 resident doctors at KEM, 368 at Nair and 635 at the Sion Hospital on Tuesday, their services would be terminated if they don't return to work. At the state-run JJ Hospital, too, 345 doctors were served notices.
On Thursday, the HC observed: "Doctors' profession is so sacred, that you cannot go on strike. Every emergency can wait but not medical emergency," the HC said and asked the resident doctors to resume duties. It also accepted the undertaking of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), which said it would urge its members to resume duties.
Advocate General Rohit Deo assured the court that to prevent assault on doctors, the government would, by April 11, deploy 1,100 security personnel in hospitals across the state. Of these, 500 will be in Mumbai hospitals. He added that, by April 30, another 600 personnel will be deployed in different hospitals.
The government further assured the HC that the guidelines on the entry of relatives of patients inside hospitals, reduced to two relatives/per patient from five, will be strictly adhered to. Mumbai Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar said: "Strict action can be taken against doctors who go on strike after the HC judgment. We can even take back their quarters if they do not resume word. But we do not intend to take extreme such steps as citizens are suffering and we want doctors to start working at the earliest."
On Thursday, the doctors' strike had taken an interesting turn with Bengaluru-based orthopedic surgeon, Dr John Ebnezar, returning his Padmashri Award and refusing to accept the Dr BC Roy Award as a mark of protest against atrocities on doctors. A doctor from Gangtok started an online petition in change.org, requesting parents to not let their children become doctors.
"Do you want your child to become a doctor to serve a society which will not bat an eyelid if your son is beaten to death by the patients he was serving? If not, it's time to decide now...Don't make your children doctors in India. Let them live," he wrote in the petition.
The Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) in Delhi too decided to resume duties on Friday. "We have decided to resume duties, but we are waiting for the Maharashtra government to come out with a decision. If needed, we may go for an indefinite strike. The decision will be taken on Saturday," FORDA President Dr Pankaj Solanki said.
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