Resident doctors' strike: Confusion at Delhi hospitals

New Delhi, June 24: The inflow of patients at Delhi's government hospitals remained thin till Wednesday afternoon as not many were aware that the resident doctors' strike was called off late on Tuesday night.

Doctors said that the situation was likely to improve by evening.

"Due to the strike being called off late Tuesday night, the information has not reached the people...," said Pankaj Solanki, a senior resident doctor working with Delhi government's B.R. Ambedkar hospital.

He said that all the resident doctors who were part of the indefinite strike have been asked to extend their working hours till late in afternoon to deal with all the cases that were pending during the strike.

Over 20,000 resident doctors on Monday morning had gone on a strike demanding proper security, live saving drugs at hospital's and proper accommodation. The strike was called off late Tuesday night after assurances from the union health ministry.

Pradeep Kumar, a senior resident at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital said: " Till 12 p.m. the inflow of the patients at the OPDs was very thin. Now there is a slight increase in the number of patients. All resident doctors have agreed to attend the patients beyond their duty hours."

He said that the number of online applications for the evening OPDs have also started increasing as the message of strike being called off has reached to the people.

Describing the number of patients less in comparison to the usual days, Mohit Kumar, president of Safdarjung hospitals's Resident Doctors Welfare Association, told IANS that at least 70 percent of the resident doctors have been asked to be on duty during the evening OPDs.

"Due to the strike, several patients were referred to AIIMS in the last two days. But as the strike has been called off we expect the number of patients to increase in the evening OPDs or directly on Thursday," he told IANS.

"As a lot of patients during the strike were referred to AIIMS, so even now they directly are going to AIIMS. It seems they are unaware of the fact that the strike has been called off. However everything will be normal in 2-3 days," he told

IANS