Hyderabad: Osmania hospital junior doctors call off strike after assurances

Hospital Superintendent B. Nagender said the administration is doing their best to accommodate the demands of the doctors. “This is only a temporary solution to the problems. A permanent solution may take one more month. We cannot have the doctors stay away from duties for long,” he told indianexpress.com

“As part of the rearrangement, we have allocated one of the two rooms in the Neurosurgery OT for elective orthopedics cases. The Plastic Surgery OT will give 3 operation tables for elective General Surgery cases. The extension of the post-operative ward will be used as a female cardiology ward and female cardiology patients will be clubbed to female cardiothoracic patients. Meanwhile, General Wards for both male and female Surgery will be allocated with the facilities available,” he said. “I want to reiterate that we do not have any additional space.”

A new building, that was meant to be a shelter for attendants, will now be readied for adequate operation theaters, he added. One of the key demands of the junior doctors has been the segregation of patients of the post-operative ward, general medicine, and orthopedics who are all housed together in a make-shift hall.

Junior doctors’ strike at #OGH over crumbling and inadequate infrastructure. They request chief minister #KCR or minister #KTR to visit the hospital once to learn facts. @IndianExpress https://t.co/YIhCSTUILr pic.twitter.com/54t2foXe3k

— Rahul V Pisharody (@rahulvpisharody) September 9, 2020

The superintendent said: “I have formed a professor’s committee with representatives of junior doctors association for rationalizing of patients for allowing beds. This may take a few days.” When asked about the centralized oxygen supply line and installation of new portals, he said the work is in progress and make take a week more.

Dr. P Rohith, president, Osmania Junior Doctors’ Association, said that the doctors will boycott their services again if there’s no change within a week. “Our strike is suspended temporarily only because of the assurance from the superintendent. If there is no change after a week, we will boycott our services again,” he said.

According to him, the hospital administration has also promised to set up a 100-bed ward for general surgery patients within a week by rearranging the existing space in the Quli Qutb Shah block. “Regarding our demand for basic amenities like spirit, bandages, etc Dr. Akhilesh and I have been made coordinators to discuss the requirement with the administration,” he added.

The junior doctors of general surgery and orthopedics departments have been boycotting the elective surgeries, out-patient duties, and ward duties. On September 10, they staged a mock surgery to showcase the situation due to the lack of equipment or infrastructure. The next day, they continued the strike wearing black badges, followed by gherao of the superintendent’s office on Saturday.