POST REPORTERS
Chiang Mai University medical academics ended their position of refusing to provide police officers with medical care as a protest against the police's Oct 7 violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.
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| Photo evidence of fatal injury Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan, the director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science, shows the blast wound of Angkhana Radappanyawut, who was killed during the Oct 7 violence, at a press conference also attended by Surasi Kosolnawin, chair of a sub-committee on human rights protection under the National Human Rights Commission. KOSOL NAKACHOL |
Doctors and health professionals did not discriminate in their provision of medical services and still gave attention to the police, said Sattawat Thongsawat, a lecturer in cardiology at the university's faculty of medicine, in a statement.
The about-face came after one member of staff from Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai hospital was physically assaulted by protesters from the pro-government Rak Chiang Mai 51 Group on Saturday.
The pro-government group vented its frustration over the doctors' boycott against police following the violent clash between police and supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) in Bangkok last week.
In the wake of the violence, 50 physicians, mostly surgeons at the faculty of medicine of Chulalongkorn and Chiang Mai universities, initially refused to treat police as a protest against the government giving police permission to use violence to disperse demonstrators.
However, the strong criticism over humanitarian principles and medical ethics was a high price to pay for the medical professionals' stance.
Asst Prof Dr Niwet Nantajit, dean of Chiang Mai's faculty of medicine, said every health professional was duty-bound to attend to all patients, regardless of their profession.
He also discouraged preferential treatment in medical practices and urged doctors to abide by the Medical Council's ethics statement.
Dr Somsak Lohlekha, the Medical Council president, said no doctor had refused medical treatment to police officers so far.
Likewise, no police officer had filed any complaint with the council over refusals to give them medical attention.
He said the doctors' stance was only a symbolic gesture of disagreement with the police use of violence against the PAD protesters, which left two dead and hundreds wounded.
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