Bhopal: Though it is not their job, junior doctors of Hamidia Hospital are these days slogging hard to ensure proper availability of drugs at the medical facility. They are also making it sure that all equipment at the hospital, which is attached to Gandhi Medical College, is in working condition. All this is aimed at avoiding confrontation with kin and kith of patients who come to the hospital for treatment and in lack of different facilities and cheap medicines vent ire on medicos.
Junior Doctors Association president Nishant Shrivastava said that they understand plight of patients and their relatives and the hardship they had to face when they are told that medicines are unavailable and equipment are not working at the hospital. “They then have to go out and avail the drugs and services at higher cost. Their frustrations ultimately fell on us,” he added.
Recently, relatives of a patient had manhandled junior doctors after they had postponed surgery. This led to a strike by medicos. GMC dean Dr MC Sonagara had held a meeting with striking medicos in which JUDA had raised the issue of shortage of medicines and equipment for the patients at the hospital.
JUDA had claimed that attendants of patients become aggressive when they learn that they have to go outside for purchasing medicines and that machines at Hamadia Hospital are out of order. Sometimes, X-ray machines do no work properly which leaves patients relatives fuming, the junior doctors said.
“They suspect that they are deliberately being subjected to unwarranted expenses by us which lead to confrontation between them and junior doctors,” Sonagara was told by medicos. The strike had ended after the dean had assured striking medicos of ensuring that sufficient of stock of medicines is available at the hospital and equipment are in working conditions.
Nishant said: “Situation is changing but the change is very slow. We have to ensure that the patients need not have to go out of the hospital for essential drugs. We understand that it will take time for purchase of new equipment but we want them at any cost. The dean told us that he will put our demands before his higher-ups shortly.”
