Monday, May 19, 2003
Monday, May 19, 2003 |
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Tamil Nadu
By Our Tamil Nadu Bureau
The specialists will be recruited on a contract basis and could even be absorbed in service later, Health department officials said. Many doctors registered with employment exchanges were coming forward to be recruited on a daily basis, the officials said. The State announced an emergency drive to hire about 2,900 doctors at Rs.500 a day and Rs.1,000 an operation to see government hospitals through the proposed indefinite strike by doctors from May 21. Already, some doctors hired during the token strike on May 14 have been asked to continue working on a daily basis to make up for the absence of house surgeons and postgraduate doctors. Meanwhile, in Madurai, though no department was closed, the Government Rajaji Hospital wore a deserted look with wards remaining empty and skeleton staff on duty. The impact was felt more in the emergency ward, where patients admitted with serious injuries were left unattended for several hours, according to their relatives. But officials claimed that 20 cases, including the ones referred by the police, were treated. However, patients complained that they could not even get a dressing for their wounds. The situation at the intensive care unit was equally grim. Relatives of two patients, Sangiah and his son, Gunasekaran of Mannalupalam near Thirupachethi in Sivaganga district, who suffered stab injuries in an attack, were looking helpless. A duty doctor acknowledged that the strike had a debilitating impact on the functioning of the hospital. Stating that doctors reporting for duty were under tremendous pressure, he deplored the government attempt at recruiting doctors on a temporary basis. In Tiruchi and neighbouring districts, elective surgeries were not performed in headquarters and taluk hospitals, even as official sources claimed that normal services were being maintained. Medical officers attended to only emergency and labour cases. Meanwhile, the Tiruchi Collector, K. Manivasan, has sent call letters to over 150 registered unemployed medical graduates to appear before a committee for temporary posting. He claimed that senior civil surgeons assured to report for duty, a claim disputed by the district unit of the TNGDA. Over 260 medicos of the K. A. P. Viswanatham Government Medical College Hospital were placed under suspension.
IMA plea
The Indian Medical Association, Tamil Nadu branch, has urged government doctors to reconsider their decision to go on an indefinite strike from May 21 and has offered its help to mediate. Stating that suspending students and transferring doctors would only add fuel to fire, the IMA requested the Government to call doctors and students for a dialogue, even though talks with students failed. On the issue of allowing private colleges, the IMA said that no State Government could decide to start colleges unless an exact doctor-patient ratio was available. It also suggested that the government and doctors join hands to take up with the Centre and the Medical Council of India the issue of mushrooming of colleges. Meanwhile, the chairman of Apollo Group of Hospitals, P.C. Reddy, told the media that there was nothing wrong in expanding medical education in the private sector, considering the vast gap between demand and supply of quality medical care in the country. He said the Apollo Group of Hospitals would extend its support to the State Government in treating patients "irrespective of costs".
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