LN Hospital doctors call off strike

Services were disrupted throughout Monday at Lok Nayak Hospital even as resident doctors called off their strike in the evening. The emergency and surgery sections were closed, while a few consultants came to the OPDs in the afternoon.

One Amid Hasan, who had trouble breathing and complained of pain in his abdomen, was sent away from the hospital's gates. His nephew Kasim, who carried Hasan on his back, said, "What if the patient dies? This is a hospital, can't you see that he is in pain?"

Patients were asked to go to the nearest government hospital with emergency services– the RML Hospital in Connaught Place. In the L N Hospital OPD, most departments like medicine, surgery, paediatrics and ENT were manned by one senior doctor till noon. "In the afternoon, when other consultants finished examining patients admitted in the wards, they came to the OPD. Most patients had to be turned away. We had no choice," said a senior doctor from the surgery department.

Shahistha, a 23-year-old from Sonepat, had an orthopaedic OPD appointment for a hip injury on Monday. She had waited outside hospital gates from 6 am. "All gates were shut in the morning. They opened OPD registrations at 9.30 am, so we thought the hospital work would start. But we were number 104 on the waiting list and not a single doctor came to the OPD," said her father.

Nearly 500 resident doctors went on an indefinite strike after a female doctor was allegedly slapped by a patient's mother on Saturday night. This was the second such assault in the hospital in the last three days. Last Friday, a team of four doctors was assaulted when they were trying save a teenager with an intestinal disorder.

With the medical superintendent (MS) on leave, Maulana Azad Medical College Dean Dr A K Aggarwal became acting MS.

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