First-year resident doctor Rohit Kumar was attacked by relatives of a patient in ward number 20 at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, Sion on Saturday night. After the attack, the other resident doctors in the hospital have decided to go on strike by mass bunking. According to doctors, the patient who was admitted in the hospital on March 18, Saturday morning was suffering from chronic kidney disease due to intentities nephritis presented with fluid overload and was on dialysis. “The patient was declared dead to the relatives on Saturday night after which the relatives blamed the resident doctor for her death and attacked him. We have written a letter to the dean of the hospital and filed a police complaint against the relatives,” said Dr Ashiwin Kumar, senior resident doctor from Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital.

Dr Rohit Kumar who works as a resident doctor in Mumbai, is from Chhattisgarh and suffered minor injuries after the attack. This is the third incident of attack on medical professionals in Maharashtra within a week. While on March 12, a resident doctor was attacked in a Dhule-based government hospital, on March 16, an intern Dr Rahul Patil and a nurse were beaten up in a Nashik-based government hospital. The Indian Medical Association along with other associations protested against the attack on medical professionals on March 17 at Azad Maidan which was attended by over 1,000 doctors. According to the doctor’s association, they want the government to take strict action against attacks happening on doctors and other medical professionals in government-run hospitals.