About 35 patients have died in Bihar’s medical college-cum-hospitals due lack of medical attention linked to the junior doctors’ strike in the past three days, but the state government took little action except repeating the appeals to the medicos as their strike completed its third day on Wednesday.
Of the 35 deaths reportedly caused owing to the strike, 28 took place at the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), Bihar’s largest multi-speciality hospital run by the government. The current strike typically showcases the state government’s laidback response and the striking doctors’ rigid stance and disregard for human life. The last strike by Bihar’s junior doctors in November 2009 had dragged for 12 days and caused the death of over 100 patients at two hospitals.
Both chief minister Nitish Kumar, currently in Delhi, and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday renewed their appeals to the junior doctors of Bihar’s six medical colleges and hospitals to return to work. While the leaders’ words had little effect, matters worsened as senior resident doctors at Patna’s Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) went off work as a day-long token strike on Wednesday.
As a solution to this politically embroiled medical impasse still eluded Bihar’s JD(U)-BJP alliance government, ministers and senior leaders were seen attending to routine work and commemorative ceremonies, including the birth anniversaries of political stalwarts L.N. Mishra and Jagdeo Prasad, even as thousands of poor citizens were denied medical attention at public hospitals.
Principal health secretary Amarjit Sinha claimed that emergency services and OPD had resumed functioning at the six medical college-hospitals — though reports suggested otherwise — and warned that the government would consider disciplinary action against the striking doctors unless they ended the strike. But he gave no time and date. Meanwhile, the striking doctors decided in a meeting to run a parallel OPD to see only the poor patients.
The Opposition RJD legislator Surendra Yadav, blamed for the strike, remained absconding even as the police said raids were being conducted for his arrest.
Mr Yadav’s two bodyguards had fired at a group of apparently violent junior doctors at Gaya’s Anugraha Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital (ANMMCH) on Sunday evening.