The state government informed the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that it had sacked 600 odd medical officers at government hospitals for dereliction of duty. They were not visiting the wards during a recent strike of doctors.
In a public interest litigation filed by advocate Gunratan Sadavarte, as many as 80 patients died as there was nobody to attend to them during the strike period. The division bench headed by Justice Naresh Patil today instructed the state to ask an independent agency to find out if these deaths were resulted due to their absence.
Court also suggested that the government evolve a permanent mechanism to deal with strikes of doctors. Earlier this month the court had snubbed the govt. for failure to deal with the strike. The court had wanted to know whether departmental action had been initiated against the medicos who went on strike between July 1 and July 7.
The doctors had gone on strike demanding that medical officers on contract be made permanent, among other things. The government refused to budge and started dismissing the doctors while hiring more on contract.
