Patients face trouble as doctors go on strike in Ludhiana
Huge inconvenience was faced by patients after doctors at the Civil Hospital here shut OPDs for the first half as they proceeded on an indefinite strike from today onwards. OPD services remained suspended from 8 am to 11 am.
In the first phase of the strike from September 9 to 11, OPDs will remain suspended for three hours.
The Punjab Civil Medical Services Association is scheduled to meet the cabinet sub-committee, formed to resolve their issues, on Wednesday.
Patients in a huge number reached the hospital as usual and kept on waiting for OPDs to start working. The OPDs were full and visitors kept on waiting for doctors to reach their consultation rooms. Many left without consulting the surgeons.
Ankit Rana, who came to visit a medicine doctor after taking leave from work, said: “It generally takes a half day whenever I come to the hospital but upon reaching here I came to know that the OPD will start at 11 am. Left with no other option, I have to wait till the OPD opens as I can’t take leave every other day,” he said.
Another patient Raj Kumar from Shimlapuri had come with his son, who was suffering from high fever. “My son got fever on Sunday night. Though I have give him a precautionary dose of medicine, the fever is not going. He is crying and I had to wait till the doctor examines him,” he said.
Meanwhil, Shobha Rani from the Tajpur Road area said there was a huge rush of patients and it had become impossible to wait due to the same. “I will consult some private doctor as even if I wait, my turn will not come,” she said.
Harish Lal from Shivpuri decided to decided to return after waiting for an hour due to a huge rush of patients. “I am not feeling well and seeing the rush and chaos, my health is deteriorating further. I will come back early on Tuesday,” he said.
The Punjab Civil Medical Services Association (PCMSA) had been struggling for their demands since long and last month they had announced to go on an indefinite strike after a round of talks with the government failed to deliver any results. They had even distributed pamphlets about their strike, mentioning their demands to OPD patients to make them aware about the step being taken by them.
The PCMSA doctors are protesting for their unresolved issues, which include stalled assured career progression scheme, pending 6th CPC arrears and security at workplace.
“Government health institutes in the state are working at half the capacity. In addition to our routine job, we are also doing other works such as VIP duties, emergency duties, post-morterms and also medicolegal cases.There are 4,600 sanctioned posts of doctor in the state, of which 2,800 are lying vacant,” said Akhil Sareen, state president of the assiciation.
In the first phase of the strike from September 9-11, OPDs will remain suspended for three hours but in the next phase from September 12 to 15, there will be complete closure of the OPDs.
Today, OPD services were suspended for the first half, 8 am to 11am. Only caesarean sections (both elective and emergency) and life-saving surgeries were done. Only Emergency trauma cases were attended.
