High Court lashes out at UP doctors, orders them to pay for patients’ deaths during strike

Following a recent four - day strike by King George’s Medical University junior residents, Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday ordered that the Doctors at K.G.M.U. will be penalized for their recent four-day strike which caused harassment to hundreds of patients and said that they would have to pay Rs.25 lacs compensation each to families who lost their dear ones owing to negligence.

Lucknow High Court’s decision came after hearing a PIL filed against the strike by local lawyer Moti Lal Yadav. After hearing PIL between June 30 and May 2, the Court  directed the State to set up a high - level committee that would find out the exact number of deaths caused due to strike and the compensation be deducted from salaries/allowances/stipend of striking doctors. The Court said that doctors in public funded institutions had no legal authority to strike and ordered the State Government to come up with a more Stringent policy to refrain doctors from striking in future.

The Court said that such incidents symbolize professional misconduct and doctors must be penalized if patients have to suffer due to such negligent conduct of doctors.

The court has directed the Higher authorities of state medical colleges and Vice - Chancellor of K.G.M.U. to identify the doctors who were on strike and deny them allowances and salaries and to also extend their probation period by  the duration of strike period.

In order to prevent such incidents of strikes in the future, the court has directed the government to maintain a  permanent record of doctors’ conduct and make it public on a  website. This would further be communicated it to Medical Council of India(MCI) for cancellation of their licenses.

The Court has asked the state government to submit a compliance report by September 10.

Nearly 350 junior residents from K.G.M.U. went on strike in protest against state government’s decision of conducting fresh admissions in Post-Graduate Courses in state medical colleges. Admissions were closed in April on the basis of  UPPGMEE(Uttar Pradesh Post Graduate Medical Entrance Examination) but were cancelled on May 26 following Supreme Court’s order which instructed State government to conduct fresh admissions after allotting up to 30% additional marks to candidates of Provincial Medical Health Services(PMHS) who have served in rural areas.

Should the doctors be penalized like this?

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