Doctor, Doctor, on the wall?

It was a quiet night shift for the two promising interns (let’s call them A & B) at the NRS hospital, as they went about attending to the patients under their care. When one patient, in particular, began to show signs of cardiac agitation, they hastened to implement measures to control just that, when, the patient in question crossed the bounds of the living world and went to meet his maker.

3 hours after that, as A & B were considering a tea-break, they suddenly heard voices clamoring outside, demanding to be let in. When they enquired as to the reason for their visit to the hospital, the mob barged in and began beating the rather hapless A & B, ignoring their cries, on grounds that A & B had been negligent in caring for the patient who had had a cardiac arrest.

This incident sparked off an agitation of an unseen scale, wherein all the doctors belonging to the NRS hospital set up cloth canopies and began their agitation, in which they demanded improved and heightened security for doctors in the hospitals along with a visit by the Chief Minister to oversee the situation and issue the appropriate commands to bring about a semblance of normality back to the situation.

Indeed, such was their protests that from Wednesday onwards, doctors from other medical institutions (both private, and government) also expressed their solidarity with the protest, and thus declined to treat patients, as an act of defiance against the violence perpetrated against them by them.

Despite requests by the Chief Minister to give up the cease-work strike and agitation based on promises of reprisals against the offenders, the doctors stringently refused to do so, demanding that they would resume work only when hospitals were made safer for them, citing that they could not always be held responsible for their patients’ deaths, especially in cases of alleged negligence, where they could not be strictly held accountable.

This cease-work strike by the doctors left the patients, many of whom had come from  far-flung districts in a rather precarious position, for most of them very not very affluent, and thus naturally could not afford the private nursing hospitals, which led to a stalemate-like situation for them as they could neither approach the government and state-run hospitals, and thus, they ultimately had to sit outside the hospitals waiting for the medical services to start or resume again.

However, by late Wednesday evening, the situation had thawed somewhat, with the MR Bangur hospital agreeing to see patients on the grounds that it still had a medical accountability and responsibility towards its patients. By 1 pm that day, patients were streaming into the hospital, glad of the reprieve they had been granted from their unsightly vigil.

The overall situation, however, remains pretty much the same for the majority of the hospitals, who had taken part in the protest along with the NRS.

I certainly hope a speedy solution is found to this so that the patients anxiously awaiting treatment can avail of the doctors and nurses and other staff in a timely manner.

Good evening to all of you, and see all of you in my next blog post.