MUMBAI HOSPITAL ISSUES LOCK-OUT NOTICE AFTER SHIV SENA MOB ATTACK

Bhaktivedanta Hospital, a 130-bed tertiary care hospital, based in the Mira Road suburb of Mumbai, was recently attacked by a mob of Shiv Sainiks.

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BHAKTIVEDANTA HOSPITAL ISSUES LOCK-OUT NOTICE AFTER MOB ATTACK

Mumbai,(PRWEB) 19th September, 2003-- After a recent attack on the Bhaktivedanta Hospital by an unruly mob of Shiv Sainiks on the 17th September, 2003, the management of the hospital, has decided to issue a lock-out notice. The drastic step has been taken by the management after the hospital received repeated complaints from the hospital staff of threats of dire consequences from the Shiv Sena.

Mr. Rajesh Talwar, CEO of Bhaktivedanta Hospital condemned the attack on Wednesday and said, We fear for the safety for our patients and our staff. After the mob attack on the hospital, the staff has been repeatedly been threatened even at their homes. Our first duty as a responsible citizen is to prevent any harm that could come to the patients and the staff -- and we have been forced to take this severe step only to protect their interests. Such politically motivated & misplaced activism against healthcare institutions will decimate the hospitals and severely affect the delivery of good health to the Indian citizenry."

The 130-bed, Mira Road hospital, recently did a wage compensation settlement with its employees union, wherein 282 out of the 292 employees had accepted the wage settlement by giving individual undertakings. Only a small minority of 8 employees had not accepted the settlement with 2 employees being absent from the hospital currently. These disgruntled 8 employees, along with the Bharatiya Kamgar Sena (BKS), the trade union wing of Shiv Sena, held a gate meeting at the Bhaktivedanta Hospital on Wednesday, 17th September, 2003, after which a mob of BKS elements got violent and entered the hospital forcibly.

Apart from causing much trauma to the innocent patients and staff, the mob had created havoc in the hospital by breaking open the main door, destroying the amplifiers and main consoles of the EPABX, causing damage to the staircase entrance door and pathology laboratory.

When errant employees cause damage to the institution, it calls for us to take strict disciplinary action against these elements who put the patients, the staff and the hospital in life-threatening danger. The management has also lodged a complaint with the Kashi-Mira police station against the employees who participated in the violence.", Mr. Talwar said.

We had come to Mira Road with one mission, and that was to rid it of disease and provide a healthy way of life to the citizens here. Such incidents shake our confidence in the system completely. We hope we will find a resolution to this situation at the earliest.", he added

About Bhaktivedanta Hospital:
Bhaktivedanta Hospital is a state-of-the-art 130 bed multi-specialty hospital in Mira Road. It is the only facility of its kind in a radius of 5 Kms and caters to a population of over 7,50,000 people of the Mira-Bhayander-Dahisar area.
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