Doctors’ Strike Cripples Hospitals; Patients Suffer

GUWAHATI: Fifty-year-old Azad Ali from Hajo in Kamrup district came to the Out Patient Department (OPD) of Gauhati Medical College & Hospital (GMCH) on early Monday morning to see doctors as he was suffering from various ailments. But all his efforts went in vain when he could not meet a single doctor at any of OPDs of GMCH till 2 pm on Monday. He incurred more than Rs 1000 to hire a car to reach GMCH from Hajo.

Ali was not alone. Hundreds of patients who came to GMCH on Monday faced the same ordeal. The same situation prevailed in Assam Medical College & Hospital, Dibrugarh, Silchar Medical College & Hospital, Jorhat Medical College & Hospital, Tezpur Medical College & Hospital, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College & Hospital at Barpeta, district hospitals and private hospitals across the State.

Doctors in Assam on Monday joined a nationwide strike called by the Indian Medical Association in solidarity with doctors in West Bengal protesting against last week’s assault on two junior medical practitioners at NRS?Hospital in Kolkata. All non-essential services, including outpatient departments, remained closed at many hospitals from 6 am on Monday. Many patients suffering critical ailments remained untreated.

Majority of private hospitals, nursing homes and clinics in Guwahati and other parts of the State also suspended OPD services.

Long queues were seen near OPDs at all government hospitals across the State since early Monday morning.

“We appreciate security concerns of doctors. But at the same doctors are duty bound to save lives. They cannot resort to strike and any other form of protests that hit treatment to patients,” Barnali Hazarika who brought her ailing mother for treatment at OPD of Medicine department at GMCH, said.

A senior doctor at GMCH, however, said even though the OPD and other non-essential services at the hospital disrupted, doctors continued to serve patients at emergency department. “Residents doctors took care of indoor or admitted patients,” the doctor said.

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