Date:14/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/14/stories/2008111452790300.htm

Karnataka

Doctors’ strike taxes the poor

Staff Correspondent

People from rural areas are forced to go to private hospitals

THE HINDU

The district government hospital in Chitradurga wears a deserted look on Thursday.

Chitradurga: Rudresh, a daily wage labour from Madakaripura village of the taluk, brought his wife, Lakshmamma, to the district government hospital here for the delivery of their second child. But because of the strike by government doctors, the couple had no option but to go to a private hospital.

Now Rudresh is worried about the hospital expenses. He needs to pay at least Rs. 5,000 for a normal delivery, which he could have saved if the government hospital had been functioning.

Like Rudresh, innumerable people mainly from rural areas faced enormous difficulties in getting medical services due to the strike, which entered its fourth day on Thursday.

Though the government hospital was providing emergency services for the first two days of the strike, they were withdrawn from Wednesday. The primary health centres in the villages were not functioning either. One of the hospital staff said that the hospital was not even providing first aid to accident victims but was sending them to private hospitals in Davangere district. The State-level strike was called by government doctors who were demanding an increase in salary on a par with doctors working in the Department of Medical Education, regularisation of services of doctors appointed on contract basis and passing a law to issue non-bailable warrants against people who attack on-duty doctors.

Speaking to The Hindu, in-charge district surgeon Vijay Kumar said that the hospital received nearly 900 out-patients and about 300 in-patients every day, but no new registration had been made because of the strike.

The government hospital in Chitradurga has 26 doctors, but except for a district surgeon and resident medical officer, no doctor was working during the strike. While this was the situation in government hospitals, private hospitals were crowded with patients. The private hospitals registered a 30 to 40 per cent increase in the number of patients, who were mainly from rural areas.