Patients and their relatives were caught by surprise on Monday. The junior doctors, who are usually too busy for them, were asking the patients coming to the Government General Hospital (GGH) or their kin for some attention.
Armed with copies of an “open letter” the junior doctors met everyone who came to GGH and explained to them why they are on strike for the past 32 days. “Brothers and sisters of India”, began the letter.
The first paragraph of the letter informs the readers that the junior doctors were on strike for the past one month.
‘Family members'
Since they felt the people of India were their family members it was their responsibility to tell everyone the reasons for their strike.
Top on the list of reasons for the strike is “the poor grade amenities and infrastructure available in government hospitals.”
The letter educates the public about the poor condition in which the GGH is in.
It says that there are no emergency drugs and round-the-clock labs for emergency investigations.
The fifth point in the letter says several patients whose lives can be saved die because of the “delay in investigations”. Even basic tests for detection of HIV and HBsAg (for Hepatitis B) are not available and the patients have to go to private medical laboratories for these.
There are several departments that extend emergency medical care to patients at the GGH, but all of them have to depend on only one ECG Machine. Acute Medical Care, Acute Surgical Care, Acute neurosurgical care, and surgical intensive care units have only one machine at their disposal.
The letter says that some government officials were collaborating with private hospitals for their own profit. The letters also explains the importance of a residential system and the place of the junior doctors in it.
The letter appears to be an all-out declaration of war against the defects in the public sector health care system of the state.
