PANJIM: Nearly 300 doctors affiliated to the Goa Association of Resident Doctors (GRAD) working in COVID Hospitals in the State have threatened to withdraw their services if violent incidents like abusing doctors and other medical staff attending to patients recur.
According to GARD, on two occasions, the relatives of patients abused doctors and other staff working in COVID Hospitals. On April 18, doctors on duty and the medical staff of ICU at the South Goa District Hospital, Margao were abused by the relatives after the demise of a patient and on April 28, another such violent incident occurred in the Goa Medical College (GMC), Bambolim, where the doctors and nurses were abused and a ventilator was broken by the patient’s relatives.
GARD has warned that if any further violent incident happens to any resident doctor or staff working in GMC, South Goa District Hospital, ESI Hospital or any other COVID Hospital, then the 300-odd doctors managing almost all of the workload of COVID-19 in the State will have no other choice but to withdraw their services with immediate effect.
“If the administration cannot provide security to the doctors or if the people of Goa fail to understand the situation and the plight of healthcare workers, then we won’t be responsible for any further untoward incidents happening as a result of withdrawal of our services,” GARD president Dr Pratik Savant said.
“It is always the resident doctors who are at the receiving end of abuses for lack of beds and other facilities. The people of Goa need to understand that we have joined GMC as post-graduate students and are providing medical services as a part of learning. We too have parents and families back home just like you all, who are waiting on the other side to see us all safe and are supporting us fearlessly to do our job of serving the public. And if the coronavirus wasn’t enough, we now have to face backlash from the very people we are trying to serve,” GARD said.
