For cancer patients, it’s either indefinite wait or going for costlier private options

New Delhi: Balviri Devi was recently diagnosed with cancer. On Saturday, the 88-year-old was referred by the govt hospital at Ghaziabad to the cancer centre at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in east Delhi. She could not be admitted due to the ongoing doctors' strike.Vijender, 56, Devi’s son, who had to take his ailing mother from one hospital to another, said, “From Ghaziabad, we took her to Delhi State Cancer Institute. It was there we learnt that the doctors were on strike and the OPD wasn’t receiving patients. We were then referred to GTB which is on the same campus as the cancer facility. But the doctors there were also on strike and we were told to take our mother somewhere else.”Vijender, who is a govt employee, said, “As a subordinate staff, I get a low salary and couldn’t think of taking my mother to a private hospital. Ab marta kya na karta (out of desperation, have to do anything). We were forced to admit her to a private hospital and pay a hefty amount that we can't actually afford.”The strike has caused problems for many others like Devi. At the state-run Delhi Cancer Institute, at least 500 patients come on average to the OPD every day. GTB gets around 4,000 patients daily at its OPD. Ever since the strike started to protest the murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata on August 9, a large number of the patients are forced to return home without meeting doctors, the hospital staff admitted. Only the OPD at Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialitsy Hospital in Dilshad Garden is functioning.At the main gate of GTB on Monday, TOI saw many patients returning unattended. Kamal, 19, said, “My mother has been complaining of pain in her left hand for the last few days. Today, because she did not have to go to work, we thought we would get her checked by a doctor. But only after arriving here did we find that the OPDs are shut. We have been asked to come back once the strike is over.”Rajesh’ son has a fractured hand. “He has a plaster cast and today we got his X-ray done. We need to get it examined by the doctors in OPD in a few days,” said the anxious father. “But if the strike doesn’t end soon, we will be forced to take him to a private hospital. That will increase our financial burden.”In both the hospitals, bed occupancy has gone down rapidly because no new patients are being admitted. “We are discharging the patients who have recovered, but because there are no new admissions, there are many beds lying vacant,” said an official of Delhi Cancer Institute.