The strike at the private clinics and small hospitals is resulting in a spike in the number of the patients thronging the government hospitals. Responding to the lock- out call given by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the association of private medical practitioners, the clinics and private hospitals have been on strike over the past few days.
The strike has diverted the patients from the clinics to the government hospitals, bringing an extra load on the latter.
The Government Doon Medical College ( GDMC) Hospital is bearing the maximum brunt of the strike as the patient load on the hospital has increased tremendously.
The hospital data suggests that on February 18, the number of patients who visited various OPDs was 1754 while 1720 patients visited the hospital OPD on February 20. The normal patient load on the hospital OPDs varies from 1000 to 1100 a day. Apart from OPD, the number of the admitted patients at the hospital is also on the rise.
Queried over the situation, the medical superintendent ( MS) of the hospital, Dr K K Tamta said that the 30 percent more patients are visiting the hospital these days.
He said that the hospital has made arrangements to cater to the extra patient load.
Apart from the GDMC Hospital, other government hospitals like Gandhi Centenary Eye Hospital, Prem Nagar Hospital and the Community Health Centres (CHC) are also reporting more patients nowadays.
The patient load on the private medical college hospitals like Mahant Indiresh and Himalyan Hospital, Jollygrant has also increased.
Meanwhile, the state health department has cancelled leaves of the doctors and other staff members while it has asked the major hospitals to run round the clock.
The director general (DG) health services, Dr T C Pant said that the hospitals have been asked to make arrangements for the patients and the 108 ambulance service has been put on alert.
He further said that senior directors of the department are directly monitoring the health services in the state.
Notably, over 2000 private clinics and hospitals have been participating in the lock- out call given by IMA since February 15.
The association of the private medical practitioners is demanding the modified clinical establishment act be implemented in the state at the earliest. IMA had submitted an exhaustive draft document of the Uttarakhand Healthcare Establishments Act in December last which, according to it, should replace Clinical Establishments Act.
IMA wants that the act should not be enforced in its present form. It has also suggested that Uttarakhand government should follow the Haryana model of the act where all the clinical establishments having less than 50 beds are exempted from the purview of the stringent provisions of the act. It also wants reduction in registration charges.
