New Delhi: Amid a continuing protest at the AIIMS here by nursing officers to change their shift timings, Nursing Officer Harish Kajla was on Monday evening suspended after a spat with a resident doctor turned ugly on Saturday during one of the nurses' protests.
On Saturday, medical procedures at the Operation Theater of AIIMS here were disrupted due to the protest and the consequent spat with a resident doctor who had arrived to resolve their issues.
The elected president of AIIMS RDA, Dr Jaswant Jangra said, "The resident doctor had gone with every good intention to act as a mediator between the nursing officer and the protesting nurses. However, the nursing officer Harish Kajla started misbehaving for no apparent reason and insulted him. This kind of behavior is completely unacceptable as we doctors work every day to serve society."
As a result of the confrontation, around 80 operations were called off at the operation theater as some nursing leaders started to demonstrate.
Many patients who were given anesthesia before being operated were lying unconscious for hours. "Basically, it's the election season so everyone wants to make a name for themselves and this was just that. However, the demand of the nurses is completely genuine but the nursing union President had no reason to misbehave with the doctor," a nurse from AIIMS said, who wished to be unnamed.
In the suspension order for Kajla, AIIMS said, "A disciplinary action is being contemplated against nursing union President Harish Kumar Kajla and he is suspended with immediate effect".