A day ahead of the strike call, the state government had urged the doctors’ association to consider the impact of the strike on the patients.”Doctors of various government health institutions have proceeded on an indefinite strike across the state from Thursday morning,” Khyalia said earlier in the day.The institutions include civil hospitals, sub-district hospitals, community and primary health centres, he said.Khyalia said OPD, emergency and post-mortem examination have also been impacted.On Wednesday, four association members, including Khyalia, had also started an indefinite hunger strike in front of the office of the health services director general in Panchkula.Long queues of patients were seen in outpatient departments (OPDs) of district hospitals at many places, including Panipat, Gurugram, Bhiwani and Hisar.The patients said they were told that the doctors were on strike.At few other places, some patients in OPDs said they were attended to by doctors undergoing postgraduate training, retired doctors or those doing internship.However, the health officials said alternate arrangements had been made so that not much inconvenience is caused to the patients.”Over the past several months, we have been given repeated assurances pertaining to our various demands but those remain unfulfilled.So, we have decided to observe a total shutdown of health services, including OPD, emergency and post-mortem from Thursday,” Khyalia had said on Wednesday.”On July 18, we were assured by the additional chief secretary (health) that a notification will be issued before July 24 pertaining to two demands — assured career progression and the bond issue. We had told the government a month ago that we will be compelled to shut down all services from July 25 (if the demands are not met),” he had added.In a letter to the association on Wednesday, Health Minister Kamal Gupta urged the doctors to consider the impact of their strike on the general public, saying the government recognises the importance of their demands and is actively working towards a resolution that will be satisfactory to all parties involved.
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