Docs on strike as hospital grapples with Encephalitis outbreak

Gorakhpur (UP), Nov 10: Medical services are virtually paralysed for the the last two days at BRD Medical college hospital, grappling with the influx of Encephalitis patients from eastern UP, as junior doctors have gone a strike demanding better security and facilities.

The residents or junior doctors went on strike on Tuesday when agitated relatives of a patient, who had died here during treatment, clashed with the medicos, sources said.

The striking doctors are demanding better security in the campus, including a ban on firearms and restricted entry through passes in the college, apart from better facilities at the hospital.

The sources said the OPD did not run today while the emergency was being operated by the senior doctors of the hospital.

Because of the strike new patients are not being admitted in the hospital, they said.

Japanese Encephalitis has claimed over 450 lives in eastern Uttar Pradesh this year. BRD medical college is main hospital catering to the patients and saw a visit by Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on October 20.

Some senior district administration officials intervened last evening and had a dialogue with hospital authorities and junior doctors to break the stalemate. However, no breakthrough was achieved, according to college sources.

PTI