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Doctors' stir continues

Health services crippled in Northern States

LUCKNOW: Strike by doctors against the proposed reservation policy continued to cripple health services in Northern States on Friday.

A strike by resident doctors of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow paralysed health services in the hospital even as the hospital administration deployed senior consultants on the job.

The Association of Resident Doctors' comprising over 250 doctors was adamant to continue its strike until government took any positive decision in reservation issue.

``The institute does not come under purview of reservation as it is a super-speciality institute but the government is trying to circumvent it,'' said Himanshu Goel, office bearer of the Association.

The agitating students said that they were against the brutality shown by police in dealing with the peaceful agitation of doctors.

Meanwhile, the King George Medical University students continued to wear black badges to protest the proposed reservation but ruled out possibility of going on strike.

Services in state-run hospitals in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh remained partially crippled as medicos protesting the proposed quota for OBCs started ``parallel OPDs'' and an awareness campaign against reservations.

``Teams of medicos are visiting schools, coaching institutes and reaching out to the public and distributing pamphlets to create awareness about the quota system,'' Kashmiri Lal, a doctor of the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) here said.

While authorities in the Post Graduate Institute for Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) have issued notices to the striking residents to resume work, the medicos have started ``parallel OPDs'' in the institute.

In view of the hardship being faced by the outstation patients, the striking doctors began handling patients in tents erected in front of the hospitals, the medicos claimed.

Meanwhile, officials at various hospitals in the region maintained that critical services, including emergency wings, ICUs and OPDs, were being handled by specialists.- But patients continued to face hardship .- UNI and PTI

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