As many as 800 doctors — post graduate and serving — have been deputed to teaching hospitals in Andhra Pradesh as emergency services took a hit after junior doctors on Saturday intensified their fortnight-long strike.
The boycott of emergency services by the junior doctors resulted in a spike in casualties but Andhra Pradesh denied that it had anything to do with neglect of patient care. There were reports of six deaths in Gandhi Hospital and about 10 in Kurnool.
Terming these reports as “untrue”, Minister for Medical Education K. Murali Mohan — who has been monitoring the situation in all the 10 teaching hospitals — said: “There is no major disruption to emergency services and no one died for want of medical attention. The reported deaths in the critical cases were natural, like any normal day in the hospitals.”
The Minister said 618 post-graduate doctors and 270 serving doctors were deputed in place of striking junior doctors to man emergency services in the State's government hospitals.
Meanwhile, in Kurnool General Hospital, where emergency services were partially hit, the striking doctors claimed the death toll had gone up to 17. The Hospital Superintendent, however, said 10 to 20 deaths were par for the course in a hospital with a bed strength of 1,050 even on a normal day.
Services were paralysed since Friday evening in Warangal M.G.M. Hospital — the major centre for people of four districts of Karimnagar, Warangal, Adilabad and Khammam — and other hospitals. However, the hospital's Resident Medical Officer said doctors from Kakatiya Medical College and Public Health Centres would join by Sunday morning. In Kakinada Government General Hospital and Visakhapatnam King George Hospital, the patient care was not been affected much.
