Doctors strike: Pregnant woman at receiving end

Hubbali: Nine months pregnant Chaithra Pawar, 22, from a tiny hamlet of Chikkakodagali in Hungund taluk, had to bear with her labour pain for over four hours at Ilkal as doctors at private hospitals on Friday went on a one-day strike to protest against the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (Amendment) Bill 2017. After she was denied treatment at private hospitals, she was rushed to Kumareshwar Hospital at Basaveshwar Vidhyavardhak Sangh in Bagalkot, where she gave birth to a baby boy. 

The woman and her family panicked as she had earlier suffered two miscarriages and they have no children. After the delivery, Chaitra said that she will name her first child after the doctor who treated her. Dr Manohar Tankasale said that Chaitra came to the hospital in a critical condition and delivery was complicated as the baby’s legs emerged first. Her relatives said that as the government hospital and healthcare centre at Ilkal lacked basic medical infrastructure, they had to rush her to the Bagalkot hospital. The Gadag Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) and district hospital saw a heavy rush of patients, but no staffers were available at the emergency department and patients had to make own arrangements to reach the ward.

 A furious GIMS Director P.S. Bhusareddy took the doctors and staff to task for arriving late to the hospital and not helping patients. Majority of the staff arrived one hour late, though higher authorities had issued orders to attend to their duties on time.  The district surgeon too was absent, making patients and their relatives angry. In Hubballi-Dharwad, outpatient departments, barring emergency cases, were closed at all private hospitals.  Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) campus saw the normal crowd and the doctors treated patients from various parts of North Karnataka.