JOIN USMedical service comes to a halt at govt hospitals
Medical services, including emergency services, ground to a halt on Friday, after doctors went on strike to demand the withdrawal of the decision to hand over district hospitals from the purview of the Family Welfare Department to the Medical Education Department
The halt in medical care prompted many of the patients to be moved to private hospitals by relatives. The doctors staged a protest outside the hospital for sometime, before dispersing.
Apart from the district surgeon, Dr Rajani, no doctor including para-medical and non-medical staff were present in the hospital. Rajani, with the help of several house surgeons and medical students, took on the role of attending to patients.
They were the rare exception.
Some 28 doctors and 202 staff did not turn up for work on Friday. Out of 31 house surgeons, only eight came to work. There are 282 in-patients at the hospital at the time of the strike. Those were transferred to private hospitals, provided in writing that they were shifting out of district hospital on their own free will.
Dr Rajani has requested the staff of the Siddhartha Institute, a private hospital, to reduce its medical fee for those patients shifted there from the district hospital.
An arrangement was made by the district administration to provide alternative services. Accordingly, 10 doctors and 30 medical staff arrived at the district hospital from the Sridevi Medical Hospital. But the protesting staff did not allow them to enter the grounds. Police personnel were deployed in the hospital campus to maintain law and order.