SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Nov 3: The senior residents’ call to boycott the OPD and indoor services badly hit health services to patients in some departments of Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College Hospital (SNMMCH) Dhanbad on Thursday.
Patients were seen gasping especially in the OPD and the indoor wards of ENT, pediatrics and eye departments which are reeling under an acute shortage of doctors. The ENT department has only one doctor (Professor) Dr AK Thakur . Due to the boycott call of senior residents Dr Thakur was seen attending patients in OPD and the ward both alone.
The pediatrics department has only two doctors Dr AVinash Kumar and Dr Sambhabi. Both had to attend OPD and indoor services. The eye department has also only two regular doctors Prof (Dr) Rajni Kant Sinha and Dr Udat Kumar. They were seen struggling in attending massive turn out of patients in the OPD.
Notably, senior residents of SNMMCH began a boycott of OPD and indoor services in the hospital on Wednesday in protest against non – payment of their honorarium for the last five months. Though for the time being they exempted their emergency duty from boycott call, they have warned to avoid attending emergency duty too from next week if their honorarium is not paid.
SNMMCH superintendent Dr AK Barnbal said that he has intensified efforts for releasing allotment of funds so that honorarium could be paid to senior residents. Reminders have been sent to the health department. But at the same time claimed that there was no impact on service to patients at OPD as well as indoor as senior doctors attended all requirements smoothly. No complaint was reported from any patient in the hospital. However senior doctors of the hospital admitted that the senior residents boycott call hit the services badly in OPD as well as in indoor.
“We of course tried patients do not suffer from the boycott call of senior residents but in some departments which have one or two doctors, patients had to wait for long times. It was not possible for one or two doctors to attend over 100 OPD patients in the scheduled period. However in some departments that have strong faculty strength patients did not suffer”, said a senior doctor.
