The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) has taken a stand in support of Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College & Hospital - where 35 deaths occurred in 48 hours - after a local MLA made the Nanded hospital dean clean its toilets. The association has condemned the public humiliation of the dean, Dr Shyamrao Wakode, who was forced to clean the toilets by Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde-led) MLA Hemant Patil.
The unfortunate incident of multiple mortality that occurred in the Government Medical College was investigated by Central MARD after having elaborate discussions with the resident doctors of multiple departments of the said hospital, and it was clearly apparent that the reasons for the unfortunate event were primarily due to multifactorial causes which include a shortage of medical faculty, a shortage of class 3 and class 4 staff, medical servants, overall manpower, life-saving medicines, and resources," the association said in a statement. An FIR has been registered against MLA Patil by Dr Wakode under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
MARD also noted that the lack of resources is a problem across government hospitals in the state. A senior resident doctor at JJ Hospital in Mumbai said the hospital is currently facing a shortage of some medicines as well as testing facilities. "Our job is to treat patients while the government's job is to ensure there are adequate resources. There have been situations where doctors have spent money from their own pocket to supply medicines to patients whenever there has been a shortage," the doctor said. In its statement, MARD also pointed out that the state government needs to take responsibility for the tragedy and rectify the issues of scarcity of resources across government hospitals, instead of "making doctors the scapegoat for their failure."MARD President of the Nanded hospital, Shrikant Umale, noted that the humiliation the dean had to suffer has affected the morale of the resident doctors. No human being should be subjected to such humiliation, let alone the dean of a hospital," he said.