People in need of medical help were in for a tough time on Friday, as many private hospitals and clinics in the city remained shut, as they were all taking part in the strike against the against the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (Amendment) Act.
The strike, called by the Karnataka unit of the Indian Medical Association, is expected to see around 45,000 private hospitals, diagnostic centres and clinics remain shut until Saturday morning.
“The out patient departments are closed and only the emergency ward is working. In cases that are not an emergency, patients are being told about the strike and sent away. The ongoing treatments are unaffected. People who had appointments for today were informed yesterday that the appointments would be postponed,” said the branch manager of a private chain of hospitals.
The strike pushed many patients to government hospitals. Shyamala, a nurse at a private hospital in Shivajinagar, had brought her young daughter to Bowring Hospital as there are no paediatricians in the hospital she works at.
M.D. Marker, Group Medical Director of Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital Group, said, “This is not a strike, but a show of solidarity against the unacceptable demands of the government that places a lot of restrictions on private healthcare practices. We have notified all our patients since the last few days that there will be a strike on the November 3rd and that all OPDs of all private hospitals will be closed. We expect that government hospitals will be reeling with the pressure of having to deal with all the patients in need of healthcare that are being sent back from private hospitals,” he said.
