Kundapur: Doctors' strike - Govt hospital wears deserted look, patients bear the brunt

Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur

Kundapur, Feb 8: The state-wide strike called by government doctors from Friday February 8 caused incovenience to people in the taluk too, with many outpatients having to wait for long and return unattended.

The strike was called by Karnataka government health department officers and employees’ welfare association in support of their various demands, such as payment of salaries to staff and doctors in rural areas every month, transfer of colleges under medical education department to woman and child welfare department, and so on.

Patients who had come from as far as 30-35 km had were made to wait for hours together. When enquired at the reception counter of the Kundapur government hospital, none of the staff could given any information.

Though a notice had been put up about the non-availability of doctors, most of the people either missed it or were illiterate and could not read. After long wait, they had no choice but to go to private hospitals.

The in-patients who were admitted were looked after by the nurses. Only a few doctors who came on rounds, and hospital chief officer Dr Udayashankar were around.

However, none of the outpatients were treated nor were they informed orally about the strike, which evoked anger among the people.