Clutching her back with one hand and the X-ray report in the other, Laxmi Ambedas, 28, was hunting for a doctor in the corridors of JJ Hospital on Saturday afternoon.
Clutching her back with one hand and the X-ray report in the other, Laxmi Ambedas, 28, was hunting for a doctor in the corridors of JJ Hospital on Saturday afternoon.
She slipped in her house and has fractured her pelvic bone and one rib. Her husband was tired after having waited for four hours to get the X-ray done. Crying out in pain, Ambedas said, “These doctors do not deserve to be respected or worshipped.” Many like Ambedas, who cannot afford private care, are the worst sufferers of this strike.
As the striking doctors and the state government failed to reach any consensus till the third day, medical facilities in the hospitals continued to suffer. The 2,000-odd resident doctors and 600-odd interns have been protesting against a sudden decline in the post-graduate courses and the government’s inability to stall it.
However, later in the day, a group of medical students had left for Pune to meet Dilip Walse Patil, state minister for medical education. Patil told DNA, “We are optimistic that some solution will emerge.” He said that the Medical Council of India had nothing to do with the strike. “We cannot recruit professors and lecturers due to an ongoing court case at the Bombay High Court,” he said.
Meanwhile, the civic run hospitals-KEM, Nair and Sion and JJ Hospital, that are usually teeming with patients, have practically shut down their out patient departments (OPD) and the operation theatres.
Loud music was blaring out of the skin and dermatology section of the Sion Hospital. There was a board hung outside saying that all OPDs are shut as doctors are on strike. “This holiday was uncalled for,” said one of the ward boys, who were ready to wind up work by 12 pm when the OPD timings are till 2pm.
Anisa Khatun’s two-year-old daughter Nargis developed tumours above both her eyes. She was scheduled to be operated at the KEM Hospital on Saturday morning but till afternoon, doctors had not given her a clear answer. “They have been telling me that anesthetists are not around or my documents are inappropriate,” said a visibly-harrowed Khatun. “Nargis can’t even open her eyes properly,” she said. “They are heartless,” said Khatun as she left the hospital.
The Emergency Medical Services section of the Sion Hospital has as many as 16 critical patients admitted but only one lecturer shuttling from one bed to the other.
The state-run JJ Hospital, that performs more than 40 major surgeries on any given day, has curtailed the number to one or two critical cases. “We have diverted all our OT staff to handle the OPDs,” said Dr Shashi Pawar, RMO, JJ Hospital. Medical help is also being brought in from the periphery and rural hospitals, he added.
Even in KEM Hospital, where at least 200 surgeries are performed on an average, the numbers have come down drastically.
“We have senior doctors to look into critical cases but without residents, it is difficult,” said one of the senior faculty members.
d_sumitra@dnaindia.net
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