Patients wait for doctor's touch at AIIMS

New Delhi, July 7 (UNI) A mixture of dread and hope ran through patients and their distraught relatives' faces as they waited for an end to the doctors' strike at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) today.

Scores of such patients, staked out outside the hospital, often the last ray of hope against debilitating illnesses for the poor.

Even as striking doctors celebrated the High Court stay on the dismissal of AIIMS Director P Venugopal, Mohammad Shafiq, a labourer from Madhubani, Bihar, expressed apprehension he may have to return home if medical care was not given urgently to his physically challenged daughter.

''I am not in position to afford the capital's high living cost for long. Just one meal costs Rs 15 here,'' he said, while pointing out that his visit would prove futile if the strike goes on for a longer period.

''What do we all have to do with politics. I have already spent 15 days here. Now it's all on God's grace,'' said Manoj Kumar, a resident of Bhojpur, Bihar, who had brought his 8 year-old highly Anaemic cousin to the prestigious hospital.

Similar were the woes of many others who had come to the hospital from other states for expert attention and care.

Umashankar of Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh, pointed to the woes of his 14-year-old son.

Multiple fractures made the boy wince with pain as doctors -- and the Union Health Ministry -- mulled the next steps of their tussle.

UNI XC RP PM2130