Mukesh Tandon

Panipat, July 25

The health services were badly hit at the Civil Hospitals, community health centres and primary health centres in Panipat and Sonepat districts today as government doctors were on strike.

The Civil Surgeons in both districts claimed that alternative arrangements had been made at the Civil Hospitals. However, not only the Outdoor Patient Department (OPD) was shut, emergency services, post-mortem examinations and deliveries of pregnant women were affected.

On an average, four-five Caesarean deliveries and 20-25 normal deliveries are conducted daily at the Panipat Civil Hospital, but today, pregnant women were refused 'new admission' at the hospital.

Ram Lal of Wadhawa Ram Colony said his tenant Karambeer was run over by a train on Wednesday and his body was kept in the mortuary. He said the deceased's family members and relatives had been standing outside the mortuary since Thursday morning.

Similarly, two more bodies were lying in the mortuary for post-mortem and their kin were waiting outside.

It is only after they met Civil Surgeon Dr Jayant Ahuja that the post-mortems were conducted in the afternoon.

Dr Rinku Sangwan, Panipat district president, HCMS Association, said all doctors, except the Civil Surgeon, were on strike. "As many as 75 doctors are posted in the district and all have applied for mass casual leave," Dr Sangwan said.

Dr Jayant Ahuja, Civil Surgeon, himself handled patients in the OPD today. He claimed that a total of 50 doctors were absent. He claimed alternative arrangements had been made.

In Sonepat, Dr Piare Lal, Media Coordinator, HCMS, said there was no doctor in the labour room of the Civil Hospital and deliveries were conducted by nurses. Apart from this, no medico legal reports were prepared and emergency services were shut, he claimed.

Some NHM doctors were called but they also left the OPDs after some time,

he claimed.

On the other hand, Dr Jai Kishor, Civil Surgeon, Sonepat, claimed that healthcare services were not affected. As many as 81 doctors were positioned at the district Civil Hospital, of which 36 were present while 45 were absent and out of a total of 56 doctors in CHCs and PHCs, 40 were present, claimed Dr Jai Kishor.