Ongoing protest cripples Victoria Hospital's service

With just senior doctors to run the show at hospitals under the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), patients were made to run from pillar to post for a consultation on Monday.

PG students, resident doctors are protesting in front of the state-run Victoria Hospital in the City citing that one of the students on duty was abused and assaulted by a pro-Kannada organization on Saturday.

Members of the pro-Kannada organisation had barged into Minto Ophthalmic Hospital, also under the BMCRI, asking that compensation should be given to patients who had lost sight in a cataract camp at the hospital.

A resident doctor on duty was asked to call her superiors to give them answers and respond to their demands in Kannada and when she refused, they had an argument and the resident doctor was asked to apologise and surrounded by activists.

On Monday, Patients who had come from far off places said that they had come to consult doctors at the outpatient departments only to be asked to come back hours later.

At Vanivilas, Victoria and Trauma centre, the non-emergency cases were made to wait for hours while a few were even asked to go back if they had come for routine check-ups.

Shankari a house helper from Doddanekundi who visited Victoria Hospital said that she had been in the hospital since 10 am and had not met the doctor even after 3 pm. "I have been made to go from one hospital to another. There is a long queue to meet the doctor also. I have a severe headache and wanted to consult a doctor for the same," she said.

Victoria Hospital which houses 11 departments saw a slow down in their consultations even as doctors claimed that no emergency cases were being denied attention. "As resident doctors have stepped out, the OPD section is bound to be crippled. The waiting period will go up. Some elective surgeries are also being postponed as surgeons have no assistance," said a resident doctor.