Kolkata: The IndiGo flight cancellations have forced several city private hospitals to reschedule OPD appointments and defer surgeries as doctors remain stranded in various parts of the country. Work on new projects, too, has been affected at some hospitals. While many are travelling to attend medical conferences, others went on vacation but failed to return since their flights got cancelled.
Two BP Poddar Hospital consultants faced delays in returning to the city. One eventually managed to catch a delayed flight while the other travelled back by train. "Although the overall OPD footfall increased by 5%-7% in the last seven days, we had to reschedule appointments originally scheduled under these two consultants," said a hospital official.
A group of cardiologists from RN Tagore Hospital (RTIICS) visited Delhi for a conference last week and were scheduled to return last Saturday. While five of them managed to catch an IndiGo flight on Sunday, one has been stranded. "His OPD appointments may have to be rescheduled," said R Venkatesh, COO (East) of Narayana Hospitals that owns RTIICS.
A team of 40 cardiac surgeons from various private hospitals had to travel to Bhubaneswar by road on Saturday after their flight got cancelled. Several surgeons from Fortis Hospital got stranded in Delhi on their way back from a conference in Rajasthan last week. Some travelled to Delhi by road and had to wait a day to catch a flight. A team of neurologists from Fortis, on the other hand, had to defer their visit to Hyderabad. "Several of them will have to reschedule their appointments with patients. Fortunately, our medical supplies have not been hit so far," said Fortis cardiovascular surgeon K M Mandana.
The flight cancellations have disrupted an NABH ‘nursing excellence' survey at Woodlands Hospital. "The chief assessor had to cancel the trip so the survey had to be done by a co-assessor on a hybrid mode, with the help of online meetings. It took much longer and has delayed the process. That apart, work on our under-construction unit at the Alipore campus has been affected since a team of engineers had their flight cancelled.," said Woodlands CEO Rupak Barua.
Several doctors at Peerless Hospital, who were on vacation, were stranded in various cities. "They returned late and we had to reschedule their OPD appointments," said CEO Sudipta Mitra.