• Hosps, admins brace for extended doc agitation
    Times of India | 11 September 2024
  • Junior doctors march to Swasthya Bhavan on Tuesday KOLKATA: The absence of junior doctors is putting pressure on senior doctors who are struggling to put healthcare services on tracks. Even as the number of patients in the OPD had dipped drastically in the beginning of the junior doctors’ agitation, the count is near normal in most medical colleges in Kolkata at present.

    On the face of this increasing patient count, the hospital administrators have pulled up rosters of senior doctors in each department so that patients get services all the time, whether it is in the OPD, emergency or the wards.

    “It is becoming increasingly tough for senior doctors as patient count is near normal now. But all seniors, including faculty members and RMOs, have agreed to put in extra hours to tide over the situation and department rosters have accordingly been prepared,” said an official at Medical College Hospital, Kolkata.

    While faculty members used to be available during night only when there is a call of a critical patient or a complex emergency surgery, now many of them are on duty for two days in a stretch. Most of them have not taken a leave since the cease-work started on Aug 9.

    “We are walking the extra mile so that health services do not get derailed. Neither the junior doctors nor seniors want this agitation to continue. But the demand for justice is objective. We appeal to the CBI as well as the state to show some positive response to end the impasse,” said Yogiraj Ray, associate professor of infectious diseases at IPGMER.

    “We are manning the OPD, emergency and the wards as well and will continue this till the impasse ends. But PGTs are only trainees and the healthcare system should depend on them only in a supportive role,” said Sudip Das, ENT professor at Medical College Hospital, Kolkata.

    Despite the increasing number of patients, the priority continues to be those who need immediate medical intervention. “For almost a fortnight, the patient count is near normal and the admission rate is picking up. Since two faculty members have been vacant for the past couple of years, four faculties with two RMOs are managing the situation and we will continue to walk the extra mile till the junior doctors come back to work,” said respiratory medicine head Jaydip Deb of NRS Medical College.
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