Patient care takes hours as docs go on strike at GMCH

CHANDIGARH: The first day of the strike of junior resident doctors at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in Sector 32 on Tuesday left patients hassled.

Although the OPD numbers were the same as before, the timings stretched for over hours. “I had been waiting for over three hours. When we asked about our turn, we were shouted at,” said Radha from Derabassi whose child had been suffering with breathlessness.

Some of the patients were referred to from Government Multi-specialty Hospital, Sector16, despite officials being informed about the strike.

One of them was a three-month-old baby. She had to undergo brainstem evoked response audiometry, a test to check child’s ability to hear. “We were told that this test is unavailable at the Sector 16 hospital and were sent to GMCH. We waited for our turn for two hours,” said Shivani, the mother of the child.

Faculty and senior residents’ leaves have been cancelled to manage the OPDs and other patient care areas. Official figures from the GMCH disclosed that 2,600 patients were seen in the OPDs in the hospital, which is almost the same on other days. “We had assured junior resident doctors that the health secretary has been pursuing their case. He had also messaged about the status,” said director-principal Prof Jasbinder Kaur. She said, “We are marking the attendance of the junior resident doctors and those who are absent will suffer.”

The Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) staged a protest outside the medical college, saying the strike would continue until their demands for central pay scale implementation were met. “We had to take this decision to compel the authorities to listen to our demand which we had been waiting for last one-and-a-half years after the gazette notification,” said Dr Sanchit Narang, media secretary, RDA. He said, “Unless we do not get a written assurance that our demand will be met, the strike will continue in non-emergency areas.”