HYDERABAD: Patients were everywhere, but the doctors nowhere to be seen. This was the scenario on Tuesday morning in city hospitals when the Government doctors boycotted all the outpatient services.

With outpatient services closed, the hapless patients, along with their relatives, squatted in and around hospital premises hoping against hope that normal services would be restored.

Patients suffered as all the surgeries in various departments including Orthopaedics, Neurology and Nephrology were cancelled in Osmania and Gandhi hospitals due to the strike.

Noisy scenes

Gandhi Hospital's outpatient premises witnessed some noisy scenes with patients and relatives venting their frustration on the doctors. "Strikes have become regular here. They should be punished for striking frequently ," said Babu Rao who came all the way from Alwal to get his hernia operation done.

Similar scenes were witnessed in Niloufer hospital when the aggrieved patients hurled abuses on the hospital authorities. "They are not admitting my daughter because she is not suffering from any life-threatening disease. They do not realise that she is sick for past four days," said resident of Red hill Shabana Begum.

Fresh admissions were not given to patients suffering from normal ailments .

In Gandhi and Osmania general hospitals, postgraduate students manned the outpatient services. .

Resident Medical Officer for Gandhi Hospital K. Hanumanulu said, "Inpatient services in the wards were stopped because there was no one to follow up cases." On Tuesday night, patients heaved a sigh of relief, as the agitating doctors called off their strike.

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