HYDERABAD: Scoffing at reports of patients dying in government hospitals due to a shortage of doctors to attend to them, newly sworn in minister for medical education Kondru Murali Mohan on Saturday said that deaths are natural as patients coming in for treatment are on their last legs. He stated categorically that the deaths have no connection with the junior doctors' boycott of emergency services and said that the government has made alternative arrangements.
The minister told reporters at the Secretariat on Saturday that the government has deputed a total of 618 senior doctors such as post graduates, assistant professors and professors at all government and teaching hospitals.
He said that Osmania General Hospital alone has been given an additional 115 doctors. Around 90 doctors have been deputed at Gandhi Hospital, 68 at Kakatiya Medical Institute, 33 at Sri Venkateshwara University, 47 in Kurnool, 70 in Guntur, 37 in Kakinada and 120 doctors in Visakhapatnam.
The minister said that the government has accepted all but one demand of the striking doctors and said that the demand for hike in stipend is unfair keeping in mind the poor financial condition of the state. He added that the government has already agreed to increase the doctors' stipend by 15 per cent as per the agreement reached between the state government and junior doctors in 2009.