TIRUVANNAMALAI : At the Tiruvnanamalai Government Medical College Hospital, where doctors had been on a three-day strike until Thursday evening, a patient, S Murugan, a daily wage worker from Alathur village in Kanchipakkam, was referred by a private hospital immediately after finding a cavity in his lungs and also symptoms of tuberculosis.
However, the tablet that he was given after being admitted in the emergency ward around 8.30 pm on Wednesday was the only medical attention he received so far, he told Express.
“The next day morning till 11.00, I was neither given any treatment nor food. When I started to develop pain on the left side of the waist, I insisted for treatment, I was told no one was available due to doctor’s strike. There is none in the hospital who even bothered to check my scan report,” said Murugan.
There were even worse cases. Selvi, a farmer from Ilaiyankanni in Perungalathur came there with her daughter whom she birthed only on December 29.
“While pouring salt water on her during the ritual, the baby drank it. Since then, the child has vomiting and shivering. The nurse at primary health centre told us to take the baby to this hospital to put her into a box (incubator) to bring down the shivering. But I was asked to come back later,” she said.
In another case, this time a three-month old child, who was referred to the emergency ward with fever and diarrhoea also faced the same fate.
“The doctors at out-patient ward of the hospital who examined the baby asked us to admit in emergency ward. But here, we are asked to come the next day,” said the child’s parents, Murugan and Kavitha, from Thandrampet.
The strike had a serious impact in Tiruvannamalai, as the medical college is the only hospital equipped to provide tertiary level medical care in the district. It handles more than 4,500 patients a day.
The doctors’ strike were triggered by a gherao protest by members of disabled association, after the former allegedly denied travel concession certificate to a person whose arm was amputated.
Following uproar from the doctors of the hospital, the local police booked a few disability activists, but that did not satisfy the men in white coats, who insisted on them being arrested.
Finally, one Kumar, a member of the association, was taken to Tiruvannamalai Town Police Station in the late afternoon to place under arrest.
He was released an hour later on station bail, which brought an end to the protest. However, doctors are now insisting that they will not issue travel concession certificates at special camps which were held to make the process less cumbersome for the disabled. From now on, the certificates will be issued only at the medical college hospital.