BHUBANESWAR: Health services were crippled at AIIMS Bhubaneswar as the protest by junior doctors here entered the 11th day on Thursday.
Although AIIMS authorities had restricted OPD services by almost 50 per cent owing to the non-cooperation from the protesting doctors, patients, who were given tickets, had a harrowing experience due to slow pace of consultation.
AIIMS has a daily footfall of over 3,500 OPD patients and it conducts around 75 planned surgeries a day. Source said, more than 300 surgeries were either cancelled or deferred due to the strike by the resident doctors.
Executive director of AIIMS Dr Ashutosh Biswal said the faculty were doing their best to attend to patients in the OPD and conducting all emergency surgeries, but the process was taking more time due to the shortage of doctors. RDA representative Dr Deepak Ghuge said they have called off the strike, but will continue silent/symbolic protest by wearing black badges till their demands like justice for the victim and implementation of the Central Protection Act are met.