Though emergency and ICU services remained operational, all routine surgeries were cancelled.
Healthcare services at the All India Institute for Medical Sciences (AIIMS) remained affected for the third consecutive day on Saturday. The protesting resident doctors continue to demand that the administration suspend a senior doctor, who had allegedly slapped one of their colleagues in front of patients and other staff members.
More than 10,000 patients visit AIIMS on a regular day in the out-patient department(OPD), which is in a critical situation as the routine surgeries have been cancelled, and the OPD is functioning in a restricted manner. Only emergency cases and surgeries were treated by the senior doctors on Saturday.
Amid the strike by the Resident Doctors Association (RDA), an 18-year-old boy was brought to the trauma centre on Thursday following a road accident. He had sustained severe head injuries and was comatose, the same day that doctors went on the strike. So, an organ retrieval team was formed and his body parts were transplanted helping at least 7 other patients in need of organ transplant.
The hospital administration has put in place a contingency plan for patient-care services, as a part of which faculty-on-call in all clinical departments have to physically man the in-patient wards.
"OPD services will function on restricted basis till such a time that normalcy is restored. Only follow-up patients with a prior appointment will be registered in OPD. New Patients OPD registration will be done as per availability of faculty in respective OPD as decided by Head of Department/Unit concerned. No walk-in registration (new and old) will be done," an order issued by the administration had stated.
The senior doctor, who heads a department at the premier institute, has tendered a written apology for assaulting the resident doctor and proceeded on leave on the directions of an internal probe panel.
"The senior doctor has been sent on leave. We want the administration to suspend him. We will continue the strike till he is suspended," said one of the resident doctors.
The RDA had also written to Union Health Minister J P Nadda, who is also the president of AIIMS, seeking revocation of Padma Shree and Dr B C Roy awards to the senior doctor.
FOR PATIENTS
- After the strike was called off, the doctors said that they requested the director to keep Monday as a working day, so that surgeries that were cancelled due to strike on Friday are taken care of, adding that since the patients had to suffer, they want to compensate in every possible way.
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