KURNOOL: Out-patients at Kurnool General Hospital continue to suffer from lack of access to doctors as junior doctors have paralysed the services with their ongoing strike.
Every day about 3,000 people visit the hospital from all four districts of Rayalaseema and Mahabubnagar in Telangana and have to wait for hours to avail any medical help. Trauma patients are the worst sufferers, said a senior administrative member of the hospital staff.
According to the hospital superindent, Dr Chandrasekhar, there has been no impact whatsoever on the services being provided to the patients as as all the doctors were on duty.
All surgeries were performed as scheduled and trauma patients were given utmost priority, he said.
When asked if junior doctors were asking other support staff including nursing staff not to perform their duties, he said no such instance had come to his knowledge. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, junior doctors staged a sit-in in front of the Collectorate and carried on their protest outside the hospital's main building.
Kurnool Medical College principal G. Ram Prasad said the students had been agitating over the National Medical Bill for the past one week. On Tuesday, a meeting was held on the college premises where several professors and student doctors participated, he said.
Junior doctors have been opposing the NMC Bill that seeks to replace the Medical Council of India (MCI). They said it was purely anti poor and anti students. The bill proposes a common final year MBBS examination, to be known as National Exit Test (NEXT), for admission to post-graduate medical courses and for obtaining license to practise medicine.
Besides, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), common counselling and the NEXT will be applicable to institutes of national importance like AIIMS in order to achieve a common standard in medical education sector in the country, it is said.
Some medical colleges like SVIMS, Tirupati, had issued a notice to parents stating that their wards were participating in agitations against NMC Bill which was against the disciplinary code of the college.
The notice said students falling short of required attendance would not be allowed to sit in the semester exams.
