BENGALURU: Doctors at Minto Ophthalmic Hospital and students of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) continued their protest on Monday. They were protesting against the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) for the alleged assault on one of their doctors at the hospital.
L N Reddy, member of Resident Doctors Association of Bangalore said, “We will be holding a protest across Karnataka and want all hospitals to take part in it. The hospital under the BMCRI will definitely take part in the protest and all the doctors and students will gather at Victoria Hospital at 9 am. The protest will go on till 4 pm.”
The doctors pointed out that the FIR filed has no provisions concerning assaults on women and on doctors on duty, which should be included.
“We want the police to take strict action against KRV activists. The FIR does not mention anything about assault on women or doctors. We want the police to add this. Of late, many doctors across the country are being assaulted — this is not justified,” said a doctor on condition of anonymity. The doctors disclosed that the Out Patient Department (OPD) will remain shut and patients will be taken to the emergency ward.
Vice president of KRV Ashwini Gowda said, “It is not our fault. When we asked the PG student in Kannada who the authorised person is for patients who lost their eyes, the student said, ‘I know Kannada but I will not speak it, which is my choice’. This provoked us as we are Kannada activists. We argued, but never assaulted the student. The patients themselves wrote letters to us asking for help. We will also a huge protest on Saturday against the hospital for putting false accusations on us, and for justice of our patients.”
Attack stemmed from lack of action for victims: DyCM
Bengaluru: Talking about the incident, Deputy CM Dr C N Ashwath Narayan interpreted the attack as a reaction to the lack of action towards victims. “They (KRV) acted out of concern for victims, as they did not get compensation, and, in turn, showed their anger towards the PG students,” he said. He also tried to convince the medicos to end their protest. CISF or KISF will be put in place at the hospital for doctors’ safety, along with CCTV cameras. Narayan also said that a fact finding committee under Dr Ravindra, cardiologist, Jayadeva Hospital, found that the pharmaceutical company that supplied the cataract drug was at fault.
10 victims of botched eye surgery at Minto to get Rs 3 lakh each
Bengaluru: DyCM Ashwath Narayan announced on Monday that 10 of the 24 patients whose surgeries were botched up in July have lost sight in one eye. These victims will soon receive an ex-gratia of Rs 3 lakh each. The CyCM promised suitable compensation for the others affected. “These are immediate measures. The next step is to recover the amount from the company (which allegedly supplied expired drugs),” he said. Criminal action will be initiated against the company, he said.