JOIN US “Can you file an affidavit stating that you will not take up private practice ? You take your patients from government hospitals to your private hospitals. Who is to bell the cat, who is to watch a watchman ?” the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice PD Dinakaran wanted to know.
Junior doctors were taken to task during a suo motu hearing. They had submitted that their working conditions were very poor and they were over burdened. The bench directed them to file a comprehensive report on their various demands.
No concern for public
The bench orally said that the doctors did not have concern for the public as everyone had private practice. “Anywhere, rural or urban areas, the situation was the same. You do not come to the government hospitals with the same zeal and punctuality as when you go to your private hospitals,” the bench noted.
Describing the situation in the hospital as a “sorry state of affairs,” the bench remarked, “Can you show us a private detective agency run by police officers or a private consultancy by Public Works Department ? We need a separate vigilance cell for doctors now.”
The bench directed the doctors to file a report related to vacancies, salary disparity, protection of staff and other details. The High Court had initiated a suo motu petition after the junior doctors resorted to a strike in the first week of May, violating a court order which stated that the doctors cannot strike.