A pediatrician working in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of government-run Sion Hospital has been thrashed by the family of a child in Mumbai.

The child is said to be recuperating but still in the NICU and according to resident doctors who have been on strike since Monday, the argument between the doctor and the parents of the child started on the procedure of treatment. Although the doctor called for security but by the time guards arrived the doctor had been thrashed. The doctors are preparing to go and register a formal complaint with the police.

This incident has further reinforced the demand of resident doctors who have been on strike asking for installation of CCTV cameras and placement of security guards in large numbers at government hospitals for their safety.

Although the state government has taken the harsh step of sending notices to doctors who claim that they are not on strike but just on mass leave, however not much has helped in breaking the strike. The resident doctors at KEM and Sion Hospital have not joined work and are on strike.

Resident doctors form about 60 percent of the workforce at government-run hospitals in Maharashtra and due to a number of incidents of doctors being thrashed by relatives of patients the resident doctors have gone on strike which has crippled the healthcare system in the state. The state government like earlier times has given assurances but has not taken concrete steps due to which the strike has only added to the woes of patients in state.

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