HYDERABAD: Senior doctors, nurses, junior doctors, and staff of Osmania General Hospital have threatened to boycott elective and emergency medical services demanding construction of new building for the hospital. A meeting will be held on Monday to discuss when to start the strike.
The in-patient (IP) block of the hospital, which is a heritage structure, is in dilapidated state and chunks of plaster of paris from ceiling fell down on many occasions. In April 2015, the state government announced that twin towers would be constructed for OGH.
Our main demand is construction of new building for OGH. Funds for the construction have to be included in the upcoming financial year’s (2018-19) budget and foundation stone has to be laid without any delay,” demanded Dr R Pandu Naik chief anesthesiologist, chairman of Osmania Joint Action Committee (JAC)-formed demanding new building. He said that associations comprising of doctors, nurses, junior doctors, Class-IV employees, office staff, are part of the JAC. “As a first step, we will submit a memorandum to the government. If we don’t get any response, we will boycott elective services. There after emergency services will be boycotted. We will launch this in phases. A meeting will be held on Monday to discuss course of action,” Dr Pandu Naik said.
Though repairs were taken up at the IP Block, sanitation condition there will not improved as it is an old building, doctors said. Since chunks of plaster of paris from ceiling fell down, some parts of the IP building, such as first floor, were marked as ‘Unsafe Zones’ by spraying ‘UZ’ on walls. Besides, wards in second floor of the block were evacuated. Also, there were plans to shift more department to Modern Government Maternity Hospital.