Karnataka - Bangalore   

Strike by junior doctors hits hospital services

Staff Reporter

Protest held against quota for backward classes in higher education

FUTILE WAIT: At Bangalore's Bowring Hospital, a patient waited in vain for ward boys to bring a stretcher during the strike by junior doctors on Thursday. Finally a family member carried him into the hospital. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: The functioning of hospitals was hit on Thursday as junior doctors and a few medical students went on strike protesting against the Centre's decision to go ahead with 27 per cent reservation of seats for Other Backward Classes in higher education.

Most of the wards in the five government hospitals attached to Bangalore Medical College — Victoria Hospital, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, Vani Vilas Hospital, Minto Eye Hospital and Venkateswara ENT Hospital — were affected. More than 350 junior doctors of Bangalore Medical College participated in the strike. They staged a protest outside Victoria Hospital.

Students of the Junior Doctors Association went on strike from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. "Our strike is in response to a `civil disobedience' call given by the national chapter of the Indian Medical Association," said Venugopal, president of the association.

As only emergency services were being provided in the hospitals, patients had to wait for long time to be attended to. In several cases, patients were turned back from the hospitals because of the shortage of doctors. A mother who had come with her three-month-old daughter for a check-up went back after waiting at the hospital for a few hours. Patients were also affected by lack of support from hospital staff. The family of a middle-aged man could not find any ward boys to get a stretcher and help wheel the patient in. Finally, the family members took the patient in themselves.

Another patient, who was advised to be admitted as an in-patient, said he had to pay a hefty sum to the ward boys so that could get a bed in the ward.

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