Lok Nayak Hospital out on a limb

THIRD DAY: PATIENTS SUFFER AS MEDICOS DENOUNCE ATTACKS: OPD, emergency services affected

The medical services in LNJP hospital were severely affected as the doctors’strike continued for the third day before being called off in the evening. No surgery took place, no patient admitted was admitted in emergency even as critical patients were forced to go elsewhere.

Shahana Simon, 27, who came from a village near Ahmedabad, had a bandaged and could not move her limbs without help. She had fallen from the second floor of a building three days ago.

Her family members came from the New Delhi Railway station directly to LNJP but were turned down by the guard manning the emergency ward’s gate. “Our local doctor said to save her life we had take her to a big hospital in Delhi immediately” said Simon’s husband. He was clueless about other big hospitals in the city.

The emergency ward did not function on Monday.

“There is no doctor inside. We are not letting anyone enter emergency," said a guard at the gate.

“We rely heavily on our students of MD and MBBS. We operate upon the patients but all the functions of preparing the patient for the same and taking care of them post-surgery is done by the students,” said a surgeon.

“We are waiting for other relatives to come. Then we’ll go to some other hospital,” said his wife, with tears in her eyes.

Amid came from Bijnaur due to acute breathlessness. Six family members accompanied him in a car that cost thousands. But he was also refused admission in LNJP. Patients complained that the waiting list for operations and tests in the hospital is very long. Crippled functioning leads to backlog.

The outpatient departments also wore a deserted look with only two or three doctors managing one OPD which usually has 10 to 12 doctors.