OPD closure: Unaware of strike by doctors, many patients return disappointed from hospitals in Bengaluru
The Hindu
Responding to a call by Indian Medical Association (IMA) for 24-hour nationwide closure of Outpatient Department (OPD) starting at 6 a.m. on August 17, doctors affiliated to the Karnataka Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) and Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes’ Association (PHANA) withdrew their OPD services. Boards displaying OPD closure notices were put up in the hospitals.
The closure of outpatient department in both government and private hospitals in Bengaluru on August 17 left many patients disappointed. They had turned up at hospitals for consultations unaware of the strike by doctors.
Doctors are protesting against the rape and murder of a doctor in R.G. Kar Medical College in Kolkata, and the hooliganism unleashed on protesting students on the eve of Independence Day.
Responding to a call by Indian Medical Association (IMA) for 24-hour nationwide closure of Outpatient Department (OPD) starting at 6 a.m. on August 17, doctors affiliated to the Karnataka Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) and Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes’ Association (PHANA) withdrew their OPD services. Boards displaying OPD closure notices were put up in the hospitals.
While all the emergency and casualty departments functioned as usual, many patients, who were unaware of the strike and landed up at hospitals for OPD consultation, were sent back.
Ranjitha Komdhandaram, a young mother who came to K.C. General hospital from K.R. Puram to get her one-year-old vaccinated, was unaware of the strike. “Despite repeated requests, the security staff are not allowing me inside. I have to come back again with my baby. Even during my delivery, there was some strike. I am very disappointed,” she said.
Elumalai V.R., a 73-year-old resident of Malleswaram Pipeline Road, who came to the hospital for treatment of a urinary infection, returned disappointed.
Doctors said the patient flow was reduced compared to regular days. They were requesting patients to come back again.
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