Abohar: Health services paralysed due to doctors’ protest
Punjab: Doctors here continued their three-hour strike at government hospitals across the state for the second consecutive day. Due to this, OPDs remained closed and patients had to face a lot of trouble. Abohar has a 100-bed sub-divisional civil hospital, which was called Nehru Memorial Civil Hospital, but it was renamed when the Akali-BJP alliance came to power. Since then the hospital has been suffering from a shortage of doctors and nursing staff, even when Surjit Kumar Jyani of nearby Katehra village was the health minister. The OPD here has to see an average of 500 patients. Dayal Chand, a resident of Kera Kheda, said that he was bitten by a stray dog and he came to the civil hospital for treatment this morning. However, he said that for about three hours neither his prescription was made nor any doctor treated him. Similarly, 60-year-old Sunita Rani of Indira Nagri, who is a patient of blood pressure and depression, came to the hospital today to get medicine. However, she had to wait for a long time during the strike. This caused his blood pressure to rise and in the absence of staff, a clerk admitted him to the emergency room where Dr Soniima treated him. In another case, Seema Rani of Rajanwali came to get her 4-year-old daughter treated. She said that a week ago her daughter had fallen and fractured her hand. She said that she had taken her daughter to an orthopedist for an X-ray but had to wait till 11 am for the doctor to arrive. She said that her daughter writhed in pain for three hours. 80-year-old Manna Singh of Patti Sadiq also came here for treatment whose leg had deteriorated due to infection. But, he had to face a lot of trouble due to the absence of the doctor. He said that it became difficult for him to sit so he had to lie down on the ground with the help of a stick. The protesting doctors raised slogans against the state government. They said that they understand the plight of the patients. They said that the Punjab government’s indifference towards their problems is the reason for the patients’ trouble.
