Magra Munda, who had come with his wife Julie from Vynagdih under Bundu block, about 40km from the city, to RIMS on Friday for the treatment of their one-year-old daughter Kirna Kumari, was distraught.

There was no doctor at the out-patient department (OPD) to attend to the baby, thanks to the more than 700 junior doctors at Jharkhand’s only state-run super speciality hospital going on strike in solidarity with their counterparts in Bengal who are on the protest path over two junior doctors being beaten up after the death of an elderly patient at Calcutta’s NRS Medical College and Hospital on Monday night.

“It is a matter of concern that doctors, who have been given immunity from attack by enemy countries (during wars), are being attacked by people of our own country,” said Dr Ashutosh, a junior doctor of the physiology department.

For someone like Magra, however, the protest spelt hassle. “I had no idea about the suspension of OPD services at the RIMS,” Magra said. “I started early morning from my village. Now I am returning to come again tomorrow.”

The emergency ward was open, but that was not of any help to him.

“A paediatrician had examined my daughter, who is suffering from a neurological problem. The doctor had asked to come with a CT scan report. When I went to the RIMS emergency ward, the doctors there told me to show the report to the same doctor who had examined my daughter. The OPD is shut. So I have no option other than returning to my village. Else I will have to stay at the RIMS balcony till tomorrow,” Munda said.

The Mundas were among the many poor patients who bore the brunt of the strike.

Meena Singh, who had come from Baxidh, a village in Giridih district around 200km from the capital, was equally distraught. She had come with her nephew Rahul Kumar, a teacher.

“I had come to show a medical report but there is no one to see it. Now I will have to come again,” she said.

Seema Devi, who had come from Daihar, a village in Chouparan block of Hazaribagh district around 160km away, was not educated enough to understand the functioning of RIMS.

“I don’t know whether I should go to the emergency ward or not,” she said.

She had come with her husband Kailash Kumar, who has been vomiting. “The person who sent me to RIMS had told me to go to the OPD but it is not functioning,” Seema said, helplessly.

State health minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi, who had come to the hospital for a meeting with the RIMS management over the death of a patient last week, expressed concern over the situation.

“Junior doctors have suspended the OPD due to a reason for which the state government is not responsible. If they had any grievance with us we would have taken care of it,” the minister said.

RIMS director Dr D.K. Singh, however, said the problem was not acute. “People coming to OPD with any serious problem for the first time, they are being treated at the emergency ward. There is no serious problem due to absence of doctors from OPD service. It is part of a nationwide strike,” Singh said.

Emergency ward staff echoed Singh. “Till 1.30pm as many as 241 patients registered for medical service. Usually, the figure is around 75,” a staff at the ward said.

The OPD runs from 9am to 4pm.

The nurses had a busy day.

“We have to take care of patients directly on the direction of senior doctors as junior doctors remained busy in protest,” said a nurse. “Though we did not have any problem, we remained on our toes throughout the day.”

Junior doctors also staged a demonstration against Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Protest echo

Around 80 junior doctors under the Resident Doctors and Student Association (RDSA) also suspended OPD services at the Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP).

“Attack on doctors in Calcutta is one incident which hogged the limelight across the country. But in fact such incidents often take place at medical institutions in different states,” said RDSA president Dr Saras Prasad. “We at CIP also feel unsafe as proper security arrangement has not been done here either. The government should take proper action in this direction by formulating laws and providing security to doctors.”

In Dhanbad, OPD services at PMCH were completely paralysed though emergency services were unaffected.

“OPD services in most private clinics also did not function, particularly in the first half. All doctors wore black badges,” said Dr Satyam Kumar, an ENT specialist at PMCH.

On average, over 1,000 patients turn up daily at the OPD of PMCH, which functions between 9am and 1pm and again for two hours from 3pm.

“Violence in hospitals adversely affects patient care. We demand immediate implementation of the Medical Protection Act,' said IMA state president Dr A.K. Singh.

Death probe

The case which health minister Chandravanshi had come to discuss pertained to the death of a patient from Jamshedpur, Jeetu Bag (50). He was admitted to RIMS on June 8 for liver disease, and died on Wednesday night.

A local daily reported that Bag died due to unavailability of medicines, but the minister said there was no negligence on the part of the doctors.