The medical services in tertiary government hospitals, which were crippled for 21-days due to the boycott by junior doctors, were restored on Monday. A semblance of normalcy prevailed, as the junior doctors in the government hospitals started reporting to their duties from Monday morning.
Much to the relief senior doctors, who had to postpone holiday plans due to the medical strike, said that outpatient and casualty medical services were fully restored at Gandhi and Osmania General Hospitals. Doctors, however, maintained that it will take at least two weeks to finish the backlog of elective surgeries, which were postponed due to the medical strike.
“We were busy in outpatient, in-patient and casualty wings. Now is the time to start taking up the elective surgeries quickly. Many of the senior doctors will also start taking leaves, which were postponed due to the medical stir. We are hoping that the normalcy will be restored in all the surgery units after the strike call-off,” senior doctors said.
“The Court has appreciated us for resuming our duties and has ordered the government to hold talks with us from Tuesday,” the junior doctors said. They said they would continue to demand scrapping of one-year compulsory rural service and mandatory treatment of all the government employees in the government hospitals.
“We feel that the infrastructure in teaching hospitals will not improve unless it is made mandatory for all the government employees, including IAS and IPS officials, to get treatment at the government hospitals,” they said.
