NEET Row: Safdarjung Hospital doctors stop services, demand police apology

Resident doctors of Delhi Safdarjung Hospital stopped all emergency services, bringing health facilities to a grinding halt on Tuesday. The protesting doctors have said that OPDs in all hospitals will be locked, and added that junior doctors will not be on duty even in the case of an emergency. The doctors' protest enters 11th day.

New Delhi:Resident doctors of Delhi Safdarjung Hospital stopped all emergency services, bringing health facilities to a grinding halt at 8am on Tuesday, after Delhi Police registered an FIR against protesting doctors on Monday. The protesting doctors have said that Out-Patient Departments (OPDs) in all hospitals will be locked, and added that junior doctors will not be on duty even in the case of an emergency.

The medical practitioners in the capital have been protesting for the last 11 days with a demand to hold NEET PG Counselling as soon as possible. However, the situation intensified significantly on Monday, when Delhi Police took several of the protesters into custody.

This led to a gheraoing of the Sarojini Nagar Police Station by the rest of the protesting doctors, which in turn resulted in the police registering a case against them.

However, the NEET PG counselling issue is before the Supreme Court right now. On Monday, the doctors were stopped by cops soon during their on foot march to the apex court, leading to a physical scuffle between the two sides. Later on, pictures surfaced on social media of doctors being thrashed during this altercation.

The protesting doctors, meanwhile, on Tuesday demanded an apology from the police.

"We want respect. This is now our foremost demand. We want an apology from the police over their brutality on our fellow doctors,", one of the demonstrators told a news agency.

"We feel their pain but until and unless we are treated with dignity, like a human being, we won't stop this agitation," said another doctor.

With agency inputs