Junior doctors in Ruia call off strike

Tirupati: Junior doctors called off agitation in Ruia Hospital on Thursday evening after patients were subjected to severe agony and inconvenience for three days. It may be recalled that the doctors went on flash strike from Monday night protesting the assault by a lady clerk on a senior resident doctor.

Highlights:

• Stalemate ended with the intervention of the Tirupati Sub Collector
• Lady clerk tendered an apology to junior doctors; In return, latter agreed to withdraw case against her
• Her services were surrendered to the District Collector for further postings

The agitating junior doctors have boycotted even the emergency services from Wednesday night. Does the hospital management has taken all steps to ensure that all the doctors are available for their duties in view of the strike by junior doctors? This is a big question as the casualty wing was left with no doctor on Thursday till 12 noon.

Normally, along with government doctors, both junior and PG doctors have to work in the casualty. There must be one Medical Officer in casualty along with other government doctors fromkey departments. But, no one was seen in the casualty and nurses were saying to the patients, that they can only give medicines once the doctor prescribe treatment.Patients used to go to Out-Patient (OP)Block in the morning where the doctors should be available till 12 noon.

After that, all cases directly come to casualty. Even before 12 noon, if doctors at OP recommend any case to emergency wing they will come there. One patient Vedavathi from Rayachoti took OP slip with Urological complaint. She was supposed to go to Room No11 where Urologist should be available.

As there was no doctor there, they asked her to go to emergency. Similarly, Balaraju came from Rayachoti with complaint of pneumonia. Vengappa came from Palamaner with diabetic foot problem. All were waiting at emergency to get treatment.Even in several wards, only nursing staff were available. In the OP Block, heavy rush was seen with mostly one doctor was available.

There were long queue lines. At Women OP room, a lady said that she was waiting for more than two hours. Several women were seen quarreling with each other as they lost patience.Speaking to The Hans India, AP Junior Doctors Association (JUDA) presidentDr M Venkataramana made it clear that they never want to go on strike.

He said assaults on junior doctors became quite common as they were responsible for writing the case sheet and talking to the patients. He said several problems can be addressed if they were provided with basic amenities at work place. For instance, there was no round-the-clock investigation lab in the emergency wing, which is mostly wanted.

“Without seeing the blood glucose level, how can we take call on whether to give glucose or insulin to a particular patient andhow can we start the treatment?” he observed.However, the present imbroglio between the junior doctors and the lady clerk was ended with Tirupati Sub Collector Nishanth Kumar’s initiative.

He held discussions with hospital authorities and the two warring groups at SV Medical College on Thursday afternoon. After the lady clerk apologised for what was happened, JUDAs agreed to call off their strike. In return, they agreed to withdraw the case against her.

Also, the services of lady clerk were surrendered to the District Collector for further postings. SV Medical College Principal Dr NV Ramanaiah, Ruia Superintendent Dr B Sidda Naik and representatives of JUDA and others attended in the discussions.

By V Pradeep Kumar