Sunit Dhawan

Rohtak, July 25

The call for strike by the HCMS doctors evoked a lukewarm response in Rohtak. The OPDs, operation theatres, labour room and other facilities at the local Civil Hospital remained operational with senior consultants managing the services.

A visit to the Civil Hospital revealed that the operations were being run as on normal days, though the number of patients was lower than normal.

"Most of the patients avoided visiting the state-run health facilities today as the news regarding the doctors' strike had been circulated in advance," said a doctor at the Civil Hospitals.

Nonetheless, the patients and their attendants waiting for their turn complained that they had to wait for long due to the shortage of doctors available at the OPDs.

On the other hand, the local health authorities maintained that there was no disruption in services due to the doctors' strike.

"All medical and patient-care services are being run as usual. Senior consultants are managing the operations smoothly and efficiently," maintained Dr Pushpender Kumar, Medical Superintendent at Civil Hospital, Rohtak.

Rohtak Civil Surgeon Dr Anil Birla revealed that the Deputy Civil Surgeons, Senior Medical Officers (SMOs), National Health Mission (NHM) medical officers, gynaecologists and paediatricians, ayurvedic medical officers and retired and re-employed consultants were pressed into service.

"Besides the Civil Hospital, operations were smooth at the smaller health facilities, including the community health centres and primary health centres etc," said Dr Birla who visited the Civil Hospital and took stock of the situation.

On the other hand, Dr Vishwajit Rathi, the president of the local chapter of the HCMS doctors' association, claimed that medical and healthcare services were affected due to strike today.

"The HCMS doctors remained on a mass casual leave today on the strike call given by the association. Though the authorities deployed senior medical officers, retired consultants and interns, the provision of medico-legal services, emergency services and conduct of post-mortems were affected due to the strike," he said.

A meeting between the office-bearers of the HCMS Association and senior functionaries of the state government was going on at Chandigarh till the filing of the report. "The call has been given for an indefinite strike and it will continue till all our concerns are addressed," said Dr Rathi.