Service in the private medical facilities were crippled on Tuesday, as the private doctors and those working from the clinics stayed away from their work at the call of the Uttarakhand Chapter of the Indian Medical Association.
They are protesting against a doctor being recently attacked by a mob in Haldwani citing medical negligence leading to a patient’s death. Compounding the woes of the patients, the para-medical staffs have also gone on strike on the same issue. Now, things have assumed even grimmer proportions with the agitating doctors having decided to stop emergency service from Wednesday onwards to intensify their stir.
The plight of the patients who are coming from far-flung areas to the facilities is understandable. Now, even the emergency service on the brink of being closed would definitely increase their predicament manifold.
The ongoing strike is impacting the Government-run hospitals too. As the people were not having the option to visit in private hospital the Government hospitals received huge number of patients on Tuesday. If this continues then the situation would be worse in the Government hospitals due to rush. The Government doctors have extended support to the striking private hospital doctors but if they too go on strike then the health system would paralyse completely, it is feared.
Alleging that the State Government is sleeping over their demand of providing fool-proof security to the on-duty doctors, IMA Uttarakhand chapter convened a meeting on Tuesday and decided to close emergency of all the private hospitals across the State indefinitely from Wednesday onwards.
IMA general secretary Dr DD Chaudhary said that despite their 36-hour ultimatum for the arrest of the accused in the case of attack in Haldwani, the Government had done nothing. “We have now no other option but to resort to indefinite strike,” he said.