Hospitals empty out as talks stay deadlocked

November 22: Services in nearly all the government and municipal hospitals in the city were crippled today on account of the resident doc...

November 22: Services in nearly all the government and municipal hospitals in the city were crippled today on account of the resident doctors8217; statewide strike that started Sunday midnight.

Wards turned empty due to discharge of patients, people wanting to be admitted were turned away, and only emergency cases were treated in public hospitals as both the government and resident doctors stiffened their stance on the issue of pay scales. Talks between the state and the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors had broken down on Saturday when the residents refused to accept an interim relief of Rs 1,000 offered by Health Minister Digvijay Khanvilkar.

Wards in all departments of the BMC-run KEM Hospital were virtually vacant, with most patients having been discharged on Sunday. A nurse in the surgery ward said even patients needing post-operative care were asked to go home, and as the hospital experienced a shortage of basic drugs, injections and saline, patients8217; relatives were asked to get these fromoutside.

Hospital sources said full-time doctors had done their rounds only in the morning and not returned to the wards later. Asha Dilip 25, admitted for heart disease in the gynaecology ward, said: 8220;Very few doctors came here today.8221; The male and female medical wards too had merely a handful of patients. One of them, Meera Bhai 54, said no doctor had come checking there too.

The KEM dean Dr R G Shirhatti said the outpatients department was today run by full-time doctors with the help of 40 medical officers brought in from peripheral hospitals. However, the number of OPD cases seen today were 1,099, while the hospital usually has three times this number in a day, he admitted.

Where to get help

The government has set up two control rooms at Mantralaya and the Directorate of Health Services, St George8217;s Hospital. Information can be obtained and complaints made on Tel: 2028615 and 2611101. Additional Municipal Commissioner G S Gill has said that if any civic hospital turns away patients,complaints can be made on Tel: 98201-05001.