HYDERABAD: The strike by junior doctors, which began on Wednesday, has cast a long shadow on COVID care at hospitals if the way the patients suffered on the day was any indication.
With the talks between the Director of Medical Education Dr Ramesh Reddy and T-JUDA representatives making no headway, the strike looks set to drag on for a few more days, raising the question of how the government is going to face the challenge.
The hope that there might any early resolution of the demands of junior doctors quickly evaporated when the latter marched out of the chambers of the DME after talks failed on Wednesday evening. The DME maintained that the increments given to senior resident doctors and junior doctors put them ahead of their counterparts in other states.
But the JUDA representatives were in no mood to buy the argument. T-JUDA president Dr Naveen Vasireddy said: "We are going ahead with our strike until a formal announcement on ex gratia is made in respect of doctors who have succumbed to COVID-19."
Major hospitals hit
The day started with 2,500 doctors going on strike. Soon after, the regular services for COVID-19 went haywire across major hospitals in the State. Services were affected primarily in Gandhi Hospital, MGM, Warangal and in Nizamabad General Hospital as the number of junior doctors pressed into Covid-19 services at these institutions is the highest.
From Gandhi Hospital, which now has nodal black fungus wards, complaints from patients' families were quite a few in number. "My father is affected with black fungus and he was admitted to Gandhi Hospital on Tuesday night. Until Wednesday evening, no one came to treat him. Some priority must be given to such serious cases," said K Srinivas, a patient’s son.
Meanwhile, officials said that the situation was not bad as all permanent staff were roped in to address the shortfall. Moreover, since the ICU and emergency services are not affected, the routine ward visits are being judiciously done keeping in mind the available staff.
As the day progressed, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao made appeals to the doctors to return to duty but their entreaties fell on deaf ears.
'Meet our four demands'
The Telangana JUDA was in no mood to relent until four principal demands are met which it says are reasonable in the case of frontline warriors.
'We can treat patients if we survive'
Questioning the narrative that they were boycotting duty amidst a serious pandemic and inconveniencing people, the doctors asked if they themselves don’t survive who would treat the people.
"Till date, 124 junior doctors, despite having taken two doses of vaccine, have tested positive in the second wave. Along with them, their families have been infected as well. How can we work in peace knowing we may get infected and make our families sick or even worse, see them in the Gandhi Hospital mortuary," rued Dr M Kiran Reddy, president of T-JUDA, Gandhi Hospital.
The doctors said that till date, around 34 healthcare staff workers in the government sector, had died of COVID. "What is even more distressing is that there is not even a list of the deceased which has been prepared. In other States ex gratia for each martyred healthcare staff is given," shared Dr Sameena, Pulmonology PG from Chest Hospital.
"We want a dedicated hospital for treating us. Presently, none of us get quarantine leaves and all of us are working day and night. We have no assurance that if we or our families fall sick, they will get a bed. We don’t want to block beds, but there should be a system where we get free treatment since we give free treatment," added Dr Lohith Reddy from Gandhi Hospital.
The other two demands are for incentives and mandatory hikes promised in a government order. "Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin increased the stipend of the doctors by Rs 30,000. Our CM promised to give incentive to all healthcare workers in 2020 by giving a 10 per cent incentive, however, nothing has come in," added Dr Rajeev P, Chest Hospital.
The fourth demand is to implement a G.O from 2018 which promised to increase the stipend of Jr doctors by 10 per cent every two years. If no attempt is made to address their issues, they would boycott emergency services from May 28.