Patients seeking OPDs at state-run and private hospitals and nursing homes had a tough time on Wednesday as doctors struck work as part of the 24-hour nationwide strike called by the IMA to protest the National Medical Commission bill.
The two state-run MGM and Sadar hospitals, nine community health centres, 18 primary health centres, 244 sub-health centres and over 40 private hospitals in and around Jamshedpur were all part of the strike. Patients either returned home or waited for hours at crowded emergency wards that were exempt from the strike, and in critical cases, seek admission.
Tata-backed corporate hospitals Tata Main Hospital, Tinplate Hospital and Tata Motors Hospital, however, functioned as usual.
“I had come to MGM hospital with my son who has high fever and is vomiting. But the OPD was deserted and the emergency unit was so crowded that I had to wait for three hours for my son’s turn,” said Narayan Gope of Birsanagar, a contract worker.
Like Gope’s son, most patients thronging MGM in Sakchi on Wednesday were suffering from viral fever.
Dr Nakul Choudhary, deputy superintendent of MGM hospital, said: “We are seeing a large number of viral fever cases. As OPD was shut, we deputed six doctors, double the usual number, at the emergency ward,” he said.
At state-run Sadar Hospital in Khasmahal, Nirmal Kumar Hansdah, a resident of Sundernagar, said he waited for a doctor for two hours at the emergency ward to get his wife treated for high fever and nausea.
East Singhbhum civil surgeon Dr Maheshwar Prasad said the directive had been issued to all state-owned health units to depute doctors in the emergency wards such a manner so as to compensate the absence of doctors at OPDs. “I asked all state-run hospitals to rejig doctor deputations in a way so as to avoid inconveniencing patients as much as possible,” said Dr Prasad.
Contacted, the IMA Jamshedpur chapter claimed success of the strike. “The strike was essential to draw the government’s attention to the anti-people and anti-doctor features of the National Medical Commission bill,” said IMA Jamshedpur chapter secretary Dr Mrityunjay Kumar Singh.
