New Delhi: Doctors and healthcare professionals are voluntarily providing their services for the protesters who are participating in the sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar.

Healthcare professionals from Delhi and neighbouring states have been running makeshift medical assistance points. Volunteer doctors sat beside ambulances, treating a steady flow of people with swollen limbs, cuts, fever and dehydration before sending them back into the crowd.

Some doctors moved through the crowd with backpacks stocked with medicines, bandages and oral rehydration salts, while others waited inside ambulances stationed near the protest venue, ready to respond if someone fainted or complained of breathlessness.

Among them are volunteers from the Five Rivers Heart Association, an NGO associated with US-based doctor Swaiman Singh, whose teams provided medical assistance also during the 2021 farmers’ protest.

The team decided to reach Jantar Mantar along with an ambulance after seeing videos and accounts of injuries during Monday’s clashes, said Amritpal Singh, a volunteer. The NEET examination is the baseline for every doctor in this country. The quality of medical education affects every citizen because every patient eventually places their life in a doctor’s hands, he said. As doctors ourselves, we understand what these students are fighting for and why this matters, he added.

Dr Swaiman Singh, President speaking to the media persons said that a team of about 50 doctors including cardiologists, dermatologists, orthopaedics and general surgeons is serving in Delhi, along with nursing staff, pharmacists and many more volunteers on rotation for the humanitarian cause.

Many people are still coming with injuries from the march. Others have developed fever after remaining outdoors in the monsoon. Some experience breathlessness because of exhaustion. We are trying to treat whoever comes to us, he said.

The doctors have become a familiar sight around the protest venue, checking blood pressure, cleaning wounds, handing out medicines and distributing ORS sachets to people waiting under tarpaulin sheets or umbrellas.

As the crowd at Jantar Mantar continues to grow with students, parents and supporters arriving from different parts of the country, volunteer doctors remain on standby, their ambulances and medical kits becoming as much a part of the protest site as the slogans, banners and tents.