Junior doctors of Patna Medical College and Hospital called off their strike around 5pm on Monday on the administration's assurance that an FIR would be lodged in the Saturday night assault.
Patients suffered like hell becasue of the strike over the past two days. It was also a pointer towards the apathetic approach of the health department and the PMCH administration, which remained mute spectators, to the suffering of the patients.
Junior doctors attributed calling off the strike to the hospital administration's assurance that they would recommend police that the section related to the Bihar Medical Service Institution and Person Protection Act, 2011, would be added in the FIR that had been lodged in this connection.
"According to the Bihar Medical Service Institution and Person Protection Act, 2011, if patients' kin create a ruckus at any hospital, they could be booked under this act. We were on strike because the hospital administration was not lodging an FIR from its side. Junior doctors had lodged the earlier FIR with Pirbahore police station," said Ramakant, a member of the Junior Doctors' Association.
Neither the hospital administration nor the health department could make any alternative arrangement for the admitted patients till the strike was called off. While only junior doctors (postgraduate students) were on strike till Sunday, senior resident medicos joined them on Monday morning.
Around 800 doctors, including juniors and senior residents, were on strike on Monday, leaving only around 60 of the 120 doctors at PMCH working in clinical disciplines to attend to patients.
PMCH superintendent Lakhendra Prasad had a bizarre reply when asked about his failure to make alternative arrangements during the strike. "The junior doctors went on strike on Saturday evening. Sunday being a holiday, we could not send a formal letter to the civil surgeon's office, seeking alternative arrangements. However, today (Monday), we sent the letter but thankfully, the strike was called off," said Prasad.
Repeated attempts to contact principal health secretary Brajesh Mehrotra proved futile. Sources in the department said the civil surgeon's office could not provide any alternative arrangement of doctors to PMCH without the approval of the health department.
"Had the health department asked the civil surgeon to do so, then he would not faced have any problem regarding this," said a source.
Like Sunday, patients continued to suffer at PMCH on Monday as well. Senior PMCH doctors turned away serious patients, citing the junior doctors' strike. One such patient was 38-year-old Akhilesh Tiwari, an accident victim who had suffered severe head injuries. He was referred from Ara sadar hospital to PMCH despite the strike. Tiwari's suffering didn't end even on reaching PMCH around 2pm.
"The senior doctor has asked us to visit the hospital next Monday. They told us that they could do anything because of the strike. I still cannot fathom why the senior doctor could not check my patient. The junior doctors had called the strike but that did not mean that senior doctors of the hospital could choose not to work," said Shravan Kumar, a nephew of Tiwari, seen waiting outside the emergency wing of PMCH around 2.30pm. His family finally took him to a private hospital.
Ranju Jha, the mother of 10-year-old Rahul Kumar, who fell off a roof four days ago and was admitted to the emergency wing of PMCH, claimed that no doctor had visited Rahul since Monday morning. "The nurses, however, are looking after the patients," said Ranju.
Many doctors claimed that they had to cancel their planned surgeries because of the strike. A doctor of the surgery department, preferring anonymity, said: "I could conduct only three surgeries today (Monday) against an usual average of six."
