Karnataka: Not much rush seen at government hospitals in early hours

BENGALURU: Despite majority of city private hospitals putting up public notices regarding Out-Patient Department (OPD) services to be shut on Friday as a token protest against the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment (Amendment) Bill, 2017, called by Indian Medical Association (IMA), several patients were seen waiting at OPD in these hospitals on Friday morning.
While MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital, Columbia Asia Hospital in Hebbal and HCG Cancer Hospital had put up prior notice and had sent messages to those who had scheduled OPD appointments, patients were continued to be seen including those who had taken the day off from work, and those who had brought their children with them for routine check-ups at OPD in these hospitals.
The Out-Patient Department at HCG Cancer Hospital said they had been turning away patients who came for appointments as there were no doctors available to see them in the morning hours.
While OPDs were completely shut, diagnostic services including scans, electrocardiography (ECG) and other tests were open in these hospitals. However, there were no doctos available to analyse and diagnose the reports.
Fortis Hospital on Cunningham Road, however, had deserted waiting rooms and niether OPD services, nor diagnostic labs were open for patients.
Although government hospitals including National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bowring Hospital and Jayadeva Hospital had made necessary arrangements to deal with additional patients on anticipating rush at OPDs, not many patients were seen in these hospitals on Friday morning.
While on other Fridays NIMHANS sees around 450 patients till 11 am, only 250 patients had registered at OPD and another 100 were seen on queue to get registered.
Dr BN Gangadhar, director at NIMHANS, said: "No unusual rush was seen today at OPD in the morning hours. While on other weekdays we get 1000 to 1700 patients at OPD, on weekends and Fridays the number is usually as low as 450 patients at OPD. In the morning hours today, there were around 300 patients which is normal."
"However the number of patients at OPD are likely to increase in the later hours, hence we have instructed our staffs to be prepared to handle any situation," he added.
Bowring Hospital too did not have much crowd. One of the administrative staffs said: "On Fridays and weekends we generally do not many patients compared to other weekdays and number of patients visiting today are as normal as other days."
An official at Kidwai Hospital, said: "While we are not expecting much rush at our OPD as most patients visiting us are old patients and they come for follow-ups, we have made arrangements in case there are more patients from private hospitals."