Yogesh has a brain tumour with an abscess. He is paralysed on one side. ``Last Wednesday, they told us he would be operated upon today,'' says a relative. But today, they were told that his disease was under control and that he should take medicines for a month. ``They said we should return in a month and then they will decide whether an operation is needed or not,'' the relative added.

Yogesh, a Vasai resident, had been admitted to a hospital at Mira Road. However, he was referred KEM as the Mira Road hospital could not operate on the abscess. Now, with the strike by resident doctors underway and a shortage of doctors, only emergency cases are being attended to. The teenager's relatives are convinced that thedisease is now under control. ``He is not in much pain, but he cannot understand anything,'' says his brother. The Std XII student is lifted and wheeled into the ambulance. ``His father is ill, he had a heart attack,'' his mother adds.

Yogesh's is not an isolated case at KEM. Though the hospital claims otherwise, patients ``who do not require immediate management'' are being discharged.

Rahman Seth had come from Gujarat to KEM for his 15-year-old son Naseer's treatment. Naseer had been diagnosed with acute pneumonia with jaundice, septic shock and hematological problems. Admitted on November 5, Naseer was discharged today. ``A senior doctor said other doctors were not there. There was only one doctor to be seen the whole of today,'' Rahman says. He is therefore taking his son back home.

Admits KEM Assistant Dean Dr Anand Rankhambe: ``We are not doing any planned surgeries.'' He also said he could not say anything about Yogesh's case, adding that ``only the neurosurgeon concerned will know.'' However, hecountered that no patient had been discharged ``on purpose'', and the discharged were only those who did not require immediate medical attention.

At Nair Hospital, Mumbai Central, Shailesh Badani has been lying in Ward 10, taking tablets to reduce chest pain since Saturday, when he had been admitted following complaints of chest pain. The doctors diagnosed that he needed a valve replacement and would have to undergo heart surgery.

But, according to Shailesh, with the strike starting on Monday, he has just been lying in the bed and taking tablets. ``I don't know when I shall be operated. Sometimes, the doctors take time even to respond to my complaints,'' he added.

The strike seems to have affected the patients' faith in public hospitals as well. At the Lokmanya Tilak Memorial General Hospital, Sion, two patients in the Trauma Ward were taken out by relatives. Ujjala Sawant and Madhuri Harmalkar, both with head injuries, were transferred by relatives to smaller, private hospitals. The relatives werescared that in the absence of resident doctors, they would not be tended to in the ward. The hospital staff said the patients had left ``against medical advice''.