Hyderabad: The protests against the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata spread in the Telangana on Friday with the medical fraternity here staying away from outpatient and elective services.
Today, doctors from private hospitals too joined the protests announcing suspension of their outpatient and elective services. Major corporate hospitals including Apollo Hospitals, Yashoda Hospitals, Basavatarakam Indo American Cancer Hospital and state-run Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) have announced suspension of their outpatient and elective services for 24 hours from 6 am on Saturday.
All the major associations representing senior government doctors, faculty, non-clinical staff, nurses, senior residents, junior doctors and nurses in government hospitals continued their protests today and intend to continue their boycott for one more day, between Saturday and Sunday.
While the emergency/casualty wings functioned normally, the elective surgeries at Gandhi Hospital, Osmania General Hospital (OGH) and NIMS, had to be postponed due to the boycott call.
Healthcare services at the OP wings at Gandhi and Osmania Medical College were impacted, as senior doctors, who reported to their regular duties wearing black badges, did their best to make-up for the absence of medicos. Later, the senior doctors at OGH and Gandhi Hospital also took one hour off from their routine medical duties and participated in protests.
More than 200 elective surgeries lined up to at Gandhi hospital and OGH on Thursday and Friday were postponed due to the ongoing boycott by Telangana Junior Doctors Association, TTGDA, AIFGDA and TGDA and NIMS Resident Doctors Association.
With the Resident Doctors and Nurses union at NIMS also deciding to join the boycott, the hospital management announced that the OP services and elective surgeries will be curtailed and postponed respectively. Emergency/casualty services, however, will continue in all government and private hospitals.