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SCB Medical College and Hospital junior doctors threaten indefinite strike

Correspondent

CUTTACK: Aggrieved over the lukewarm response from hospital authorities over their demand for protection from HIV/AIDS cases, junior doctors of SCB Medical College and Hospital have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from Wednesday.

A delegation of Junior Doctors’ Association (JDA) submitted a memorandum to the hospital superintendent on Tuesday and informed the authorities that if adequate precautionary measures are not taken and the treating doctors are not supplied with requisite kits to protect themselves from the deadly disease, they would be forced to boycott all operations in the hospital.

At least three cases of full-blown AIDS patients had managed to take admission in the hospital in recent days for some other ailments and were operated upon.

This had spread panic among the doctors who are risking their life operating the patients with bare minimum protective gears.

“A pair of gloves is our only protective gear from the deadly disease as we operate these patients without even knowing that the patient is a positive HIV case,” said a junior doctor of the hospital.

The phenomenal rise in HIV positive cases among the patients testing their blood samples at the voluntary counselling and testing centre here has put the doctors in a fix, particularly the surgeons are a worried lot.

Neither they can force all patients to go for the HIV test before any surgery nor can they remain off guard taking the risk.

“We cannot force a patient to get HIV test done before the surgery and invite the ire of Consumer Protection Act. Instead we presume that all patients are potential careers of the deadly virus and hence we take precautionary measures before using our scalpel,” said another junior doctor doing PG in surgery here.

Hospital Superintendent J.K. Balabantray, however, denied the allegations and said steps would be taken to see that the junior doctors do not affect the health services in the hospital due to their proposed strike.

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SCB Medical College and Hospital junior doctors threaten indefinite strike

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