Hyderabad: On Wednesday, junior doctors at Osmania General Hospital and Medical College began a strike demanding better facilities in the new building, where some hospitals had been moved after the old building had been flooded on July 27.
Doctors of general and orthopaedic surgery boycotted duties in the outpatient and elective surgeries.
“At the general surgery operation theatre in the new building, neither is there space nor adequate facilities to perform an operation. It’s more like a makeshift operation theatre, “said Dr. P. Rohit, orthopaedic surgeon and president of the Osmania Telangana Junior Doctors Association.” There’s no post-operative ward either.
“After surgery, patients are moved to the headquarters in Qutub Quli Shah, where there are general patients. When post-operative patients are kept together with other patients, there is a chance that operated patients will get infected with some disease, and if orthopaedic patients get infected with COVID, it will be difficult for physicians to keep monitoring, “said Rohit.
The junior doctors said that they were only able to perform 2-3 surgeries per day due to a lack of facilities that would deprive many of them of timely treatment. “Patients are waiting for surgery for 20-30 days and Osmania is a non-COVID hospital, patients with all sorts of complaints are coming here. They’re being forced to wait a long time for surgery, “he said.
“The patients are more suffering than the doctors. We came here to learn how to perform surgery, and if there is not enough practice, we will only commit more mistakes that can prove fatal to patients, “he added.
The junior doctors demanded that the old hospital building be opened for surgery and post-operative use. “This will allow us to have more space and patients will also not need to wait for surgery and treatment,” he said.
To this end, the Superintendent of Osmania General Hospital and Medical College Dr. B. Nagendra argued that the facilities available at the hospital are sufficient for the treatment of patients. The Government is taking steps to increase the capacity of hospitals and to provide all facilities in all areas. This is going to take some time, he said.
In response to the pandemic, he urged PG students to cooperate with officials and manage to treat patients with available facilities. “I appeal to all PG students to provide their services to patients, as this is the only non-COVID hospital to do so during the pandemic. All the facilities will be provided soon, “he said.He also added that they are in the process of opening the operation theatre in the GHMC building once the tender has been finalised.