Strike leaves poor patients in the lurch

Patients were seen running from one hospital to another on Friday as they were caught unaware by the resident doctors’ strike.

They had no option but to wait outside the emergency ward till late afternoon when finally some senior doctors started attending to patients.

Kalwa resident Niket Thakur, 18, spent the entire morning travelling from one hospital to another to be admitted for his head injury.

“His bike skid at Kalwa at 9.30am and he suffered head injury. We went to the nearby Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital run by the Thane Municipal Corporation,” said a relative requesting anonymity. “The doctor administered basic first aid and asked us to show him to a neurosurgeon.  He told us that as the doctors were on strike, we will have to take Thakur to another hospital.”

Thakur’s relatives rushed him to KEM hospital at Parel only to find no doctors there.  “We are waiting here since 2.30pm and there are only a few doctors around but no neurosurgeons. A doctor’s job is to treat patients, not harass them,” Thakur said. It was only around 4.30pm that the doctors came and attended to his head injury.

Twelve-tear-old Mangesh Rathod’s family too were seen running from pillar to post to get him treated. “He has fever and severe stomach ache and pain in his legs.  We went to St George’s hospital in the morning, but we were told to go to Sewri hospital. There they told us to go to KEM,” said his distraught father Mohan Rathod. “We have been inside the paediatric ward since 2pm. It is 4.30pm now, but there are no doctors around.”

Sanjay Sharma, 25, was anguished by the indefinite strike as his 45-year-old brother Kundan’s condition worsened.

“Kundan was treated for liver problem and was in the ICU. In the afternoon they shifted him to the general ward after which his condition started deteriorating.  I kept telling the nurse to attend to him, but she said she will do the needful after lunch and on the doctor’s instructions. I don’t know what to do.  I feel really helpless,” he said.

Narsingh Pandit, 45, a farm labourer came all the way from Burhanpur near Bhusawal to get his four-year-old son Vijay treated as he cannot walk.

“We have been waiting here since 6am and now we have been told that there is this strike,” he said. “What are we supposed to do now? We do not even know anybody here. I think we will spend the night in the corridors and see what happens tomorrow. If the strike continues for more than two days, we will return back to our village.  We are poor people and do not have so much money to sustain ourselves in this city,” he said, with tears in his eyes.