State-run facilities less impacted as pending procedures clear slowly
The doctors on strike in Mumbai’s JJ hospital. File pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
In the aftermath of a 10-day doctors’ strike, hospitals under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are reeling under a backlog of surgical procedures, which will take a few days to clear. However, state-run hospitals have been less affected.
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Data shared by BMC officials during the strike reveals that KEM hospital managed to perform the most surgeries among the four medical college hospitals, despite the limited resources.
“There are only one or two departments which were likely impacted, but we were regularly conducting almost 100 surgeries,” said Dr Sangeeta Rawat, the dean of KEM hospital.
A resident doctor from one of the medical college hospitals said, “Elective surgeries became a challenge for hospitals, and many older patients scheduled for operations like hernia were given a later date due to lack of manpower. This will be covered up in the next few days.”
Sion hospital saw the steepest decline in daily surgeries, with some days recording zero minor or major procedures. When asked if the hospital faced unique challenges, Dr Mohan Joshi, the hospital’s dean, said, “The challenges were the same as other hospitals,” but declined to explain why no surgeries were performed on certain days.
Dr Akshay More, the head of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) at Sion hospital, said, “Many of these patients (for elective surgeries) have chronic conditions, and it often happens that they do not arrive on the dates allotted.”
At the state-run JJ hospital, spokesperson Dr Revat Kaninde reported that planned procedures were conducted by senior doctors. “There are very few surgeries that are pending because of the strike. JJ, being a state-run hospital, has better resources compared to civic hospitals,” he noted.
Meanwhile, some resident doctors resumed their duties on Friday after donating blood in honour of the Kolkata rape and murder victim.
10
No. of days the doctors have been on strike
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