JOIN USGTB docs on strike for 2nd day
The OPD services at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital were severely hit with resident doctors going on strike for the second day here on Tuesday.
Both senior and junior resident doctors went on strike on Monday afternoon after a junior resident doctor was allegedly mandhandled by relatives of a patient in the casualty department late on Sunday night.
GTB being the biggest state government-run hospital in east and north-east Delhi, hundreds of patients get affected with OPD services being stalled. Resident doctors also did not attend emergency services. However, senior consultants were brought in to run the casualty department.
According to doctors, this is the second attack on a doctor in two weeks. The last time the doctor was allegedly manhandled in the medicine ward, following which doctors went on a strike for a day. Despite the rise in attacks, the administration has not beefed up security for doctors in the hospital premises, said doctors.
“We went on strike on Monday from 2 pm. We had communicated about our stand to the hospital administration on Sunday night itself. Since there was no effort to resolve the issue from the administration, we had no other option left,” said Dr Anshuman Raheja, secretary, resident doctors’ association, GTB Hospital.
According to doctors, they end up bearing the brunt of relatives of critically ill patients as the hospital administartion lacks in providing lifesaving drugs among other amenities.
“There is an acute shortage of supply of lifesaving drugs, oxygen masks for patients and personal protective equipment like gloves for doctors. Relatives start agitating when we tell them to go and procure these drugs and doctors are manhandled,” said a doctor.
Even though the issue has been repeatedly highlighted before the hospital administration and the Health Department, no action has been taken to resolve the issue so far, doctors said.
Dr B K Jain, medical superintendent, GTB Hospital, said the supply of “medicines and other essentials” was being closely monitored by the administration.
“We procure around 5,000 different medicinal and other components at a given time. There might be some discrepancies. We are monitoring and reviewing the stocks.
But what the resident doctors claim about the deficit in supply is highly exaggerated,” said Dr Jain.
“We have appealed for them to take off the strike several times now but they have not complied,” he added.
The resident doctors said they have sought an appointment with the Health Minister to discuss their demands.