Doctors go off duty protesting against attack on colleague

New Delhi: Around 15,000 resident doctors at government hospitals in Delhi went off work in protest against the assault on one of their colleagues, causing inconvenience to hundreds of patients.

Around 15,000 resident doctors from Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, GTB, Safdarjung, Lady Hardinge, Hindu Rao, Ambedkar, DDU, Mahrishi Balmiki, ESI and others boycotted work. They were protesting the assault on a doctor at Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital by relatives of a patient late on Monday night.

Later in the day, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain claimed that the government has accepted all demands of the doctors and security has been beefed up in all hospitals.

"The numbers of security guards and Delhi Police personnel have been increased outside ICU and emergency wards so that such incident could not happen again," Jain said at a press conference here.

Jain also said that doctors except those of GTB Hospital have called off their strike.

Meanwhile, the city today reported 83 fresh cases of swine flu as the total number of cases rose to 2,791.

The health department of Delhi government carried out 315 tests, of which 83 were tested positive.

A five-year-old girl has become the 10th victim of swine flu, taking to 10 the total number of deaths due to the H1N1 virus in the national capital.

According to a government official, the girl died at Hindu Rao Hospital. "Alisha was suffering from H1N1 influenza virus and died at Hindu Rao Hospital on February 13," the official said.