Hyderabad: Osmania General Hospital PG doctors call off strike

Other departments have been asked by authorities to spare some personnel to perform duty on rotational basis and ease the excessive burden on them

Hyderabad: The 30 students of General Medicine who have been abstaining from duties for the past three days at the Osmania General Hospital (OGH) called off their strike on Tuesday.

The postgraduate students had boycotted their duties because of being overburdened with COVID-19 work and had informed the administration about the same.

R Ravi, a PG doctor, told The Hans India, "On Tuesday our Principal has ordered every department HOD to send some PGs from their department to the isolation wards on rotation basis so that there is no burden on only one department. We gave multiple representations to the superintendent and DME but all that was in vain."

He said it was impossible to perform duties as there are only four PGs on duty, who have to manage emergency cases, casualty, as well as the isolation ward. In total there are as many as 35 doctors, of whom two are on maternity leave, five have tested positive and the rest are doing rotational duties.

Another PG doctor R Abhinandan says, "We want to do the duties but we also need some support from the authorities as well as other departments so that the burden is shared. As this is the only non-COVID hospital in the city, we attend around 100 to 150 COVID suspected cases daily. We are unable to give quality services to the patients because of the workload. Also we were taking quarantine for only four or five days but other departments were taking quarantine for seven days."

"Now they have increased the number to 100 beds from 15 to 20 in the isolation ward. Usually, one PG student is supposed to look after 10-20 patients, but now they are being made to look after 100 patients that's why we asked for rotational duties," adds Abhinandan.

Many cases are related to medical doctors only, that's why they overburdened and not in position to manage the load with just 4 to 5 PG students. They had demanded that authorities assign PG from each department with a 12-hour shift once a month. Some PGs from other departments are unhappy with this decision," said Ravi.

Now they have increased the number to 100 beds from 15 to 20 in the isolation ward. Usually, one PG student is supposed to look after 10-20 patients, but now they are being made to look after 100 patients that's why we asked for rotational duties

– A doctor