Junior doctors’ stir hits health services

PATNA: Junior doctors of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) and Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) on Thursday joined the strike called by their colleagues in Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH). As a result, health services were paralysed in the three institutions.
The NMCH junior doctors had gone on strike on Tuesday to protest the alleged ruckus created by attendants of an elderly woman who was brought dead to the hospital.The junior doctors alleged that the attendants were demanding that the dead woman be revived. An altercation followed when the doctors declared the woman brought dead. Doctors alleged that one of the attendants also fired in the air.
Emergency units, ICUs, OPDs, labour rooms, IPDs and laboratories of the three hospitals were severely affected by the strike. Several operations were also postponed. Patients visiting PMCH from other districts were hit hard.
Sanjeev Kumar, who had come to PMCH from Chhapra to get himself treated, could not even register his name. “They are not entertaining registrations. I don’t know how long this will last. It will be difficult for me to stay in Patna for long. I may have to return home without treatment,” he said.
Meanwhile, principal secretary of health department Sanjay Kumar met the agitating junior doctors of NMCH on Thursday and urged them to call off the strike, promising that their security concerns would be looked into by the government.
“The department has already decided to set up a police outpost at NMCH. To begin with, the hospital administration will provide up a temporary space for the outpost. We will try to make things more systematic within a month. A new grill will be installed near the emergency unit to restrict movement of people,” Kumar said.
He added of the five people who created ruckus on Tuesday, two were arrested by the police.
The NMCH junior doctors have demanded deployment of armed guards on the hospital premises. They have also demanded barricading of central emergency and installation metal detectors in different wards, including emergency and ICUs.