Medical Services At Govt Hospitals In Disarray In Telangana

Medical services at all the State-run teaching hospitals continued to remain in disarray under the impact of an indefinite medical strike of emergency services, elective surgeries and all other routine medical services.

For the third consecutive day, outpatient services at Gandhi Hospital and Osmania General Hospitals took a big hit, as medicos continued to boycott their regular duties and protests against the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill-2019, which was recently passed in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

The protest by junior doctors against NMC Bill has also started to get reflected in quality of patient-care services at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS). The outpatient services at NIMS have literally come to a standstill, as Resident Doctors Association (RDA) of NIMS stayed away from their duties and took part in dharnas within the hospital campus.

The opposition towards NMC Bill 2019 among the junior doctors has become so intense that on Friday, the medical students of Osmana Medical College (OMC) also launched an indefinite hunger strike within the college campus. On Thursday, the medical students of Gandhi Hospital had launched an indefinite hunger strike against the NMC Bill.

“For the past three days, the entire senior staff including doctors is working overtime. However, it has become tough to maintain the services, as medicos have not reported to inpatient, outpatient and even in the emergency departments. We are doing our best,” says Osmania General Hospital (OGH) Superintendent, Dr. B. Nagender.

Despite inclement weather conditions, all day long, medicos in Hyderabad and the districts participated in a series of protest rallies, dharnas and walks from their respective medical colleges.

According to Telangana State Junior Doctors Association (TSJUDA), the MBBS classes in medical colleges were not held, as medical students decided to boycott them and participate in the protests.

TSJUDA has maintained that it would continue to boycott all medical duties till the central unit of Indian Medical Association (IMA) rolled back the strike call. In fact, the medicos here said that they would continue with their indefinite medical strike till the resident doctors of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), who also have launched complete medical bandh, call-off their stir.

The protests against the NMC Bill 2019 have been widespread across all the teaching hospitals in the State. Medicos and medical students from MGM, Warangal, RIMS Adilabad, Niloufer Hospital, Government medical college in Nizamabad have boycotted their duties and classes respectively. – Telangana Today