Tuesday, June 18, 2019

TN Doctors Wear Black Badges, Helmets As Mark Of Protest
Emergency rooms fill up as docs cancel appointments


TIMES NEWS NETWORK  18.06.2019


Doctors in most private hospitals in Tamil Nadu cancelled “non-essential” appointments starting 6am on Monday as part of a national protest called by the Indian Medical Association to condemn the assault on intern doctors in Kolkata. Patients, including those from other states, were asked to return on Tuesday if they didn’t have pain or “emergency” needs.

Doctors — including those in Apollo Hospitals, SIMS Hospitals, Gleneagles Global and Fortis Malar — cut appointments and sent text messages and e-mails to patients with support from hospital managements. Apollo Hospitals, for instance, told doctors they will not run OPD services but consultants can treat important cases. Inpatient services, operation theatres (including elective surgeries), lab services and emergency rooms in most hospitals were functioning in the city. However, in districts such as Coimbatore, elective surgeries were cancelled in most private hospitals.

Neighbourhood hospitals and clinics were closed. Doctors at government hospitals across the state worked wearing black badges. Some of them wore helmets at out-patients clinics to show they were at risk. “Doctors held dharna on campus. We also skipped private practice after duty hours,” said Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association president Dr K Senthil.

Some physicians in the private sector took the day off while surgeons postponed consultation including post-operative care. As a result, emergency and trauma wards were overcrowded through the day.

“I have fever and cough since last night. I need only a consultation, but I had to go to the emergency ward because I got no appointments,” said 60-year-old Ramesh Kumar S, who retired from government service recently.

Doctors at the Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital said old patients who came from other districts for follow-ups and check-ups were treated by doctors at the emergency room. “No patient who is sick was turned away,” a doctor said.

The strike would continue till 6am on Tuesday, said IMA state president Dr S Kanagasabapathy. “There is a lot of anger among doctors because they often come under attack here too. Since the Tamil Nadu Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act, 2008, came into force, the state has registered about 33 cases and 13 people have been convicted. “We are now asking for a central Act that will be more stringent,” said IMA former national vice-president Dr T N Ravishankar.

Doctors want 10 years of imprisonment with a fine that is nearly three times the cost of damage to the hospital. “We need not be paid all the money. Let the additional money go to government coffers, but it will instil some fear,” said Dr Kanagasabapathy.

Health minister C Vijaya Baskar, however, told reporters that doctors in Tamil Nadu were given proper security.


SHOW OF SUPPORT: A doctor wearing a helmet as a mark of protest checks a patient at Institute of Child Health, Egmore. Doctors protest wearing black ribbons on Madras Medical College premises


I have fever and cough since last night. I need only a consultation, but I had to go to the emergency ward because I got no appointments

Ramesh Kumar S | 60-YEAR-OLD PATIENT

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