Hyderabad doctors protest wearing helmets on duty after ceiling fan falls on colleague

Junior doctors working at the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad staged a protest on Tuesday in a unique manner by wearing helmets on duty. They were protesting against the incident in which a ceiling fan fell on a duty doctor in the hospital. The protest was a sign to mock the authorities responsible for ensuring that such incidents are taken care of. A female duty doctor in the dermatology department suffered head injuries after a ceiling fan fell on her on Monday.

A delegation of the junior doctors later met the Superintendent of the hospital and submitted a memorandum of demands to him. The memorandum said, "Such incidents have now become day-to-day events in the hospital. We are grateful that none of these incidents which occurred so far has caused grievous injury to the working staff or the patients but it would be no longer when one such incident might happen and the authorities would be left with no answer." The doctors have also asked the hospital authorities to carefully look into the matter. The memorandum further added, "as working with life at risk is bound to hamper the patient care and delivery of duties."

Previous protests by doctors at Osmania hospital

The hospital has seen previous protests by the doctors, most prominently during the pandemic last year, when the medical staff protested against the lack of medical equipment and facilities. The doctors even said that due to the lack of proper facilities available at the hospital, the doctors are forced to turn back the patients as they were unable to take care of them. The hospital had poor infrastructure, which resulted in another protest by the doctors for the construction of new buildings and improvement of the existing ones. Adding more beds has also been on the agenda of the doctors. 

(with inputs from ANI)