Out Patient Department service to be suspended for 24 hours from 6 am to 6 am next day

Mysuru: Out Patient Departments (OPDs) in hospitals across the country will remain shut on Monday, June 17 with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) calling for a nationwide suspension of non-essential services to express solidarity with Kolkata doctors who are protesting against attack on some of them by a mob last Tuesday.

Even the Karnataka unit of IMA has called for a strike across the State, a move that could paralyse thousands of government and private-run health facilities.

In Mysuru, OPD services will be withdrawn on Monday across all hospitals and clinics. “On Monday, all non-essential services including OPDs will be withdrawn for 24 hours from 6 am to 6 am the next day. All emergency and casualty services will continue to function,” said the IMA statement.

Speaking to Star of Mysore, Mysuru IMA Secretary Dr. Jayanth said that they will support the strike and OPD services will be suspended for 24 hours.

IMA Mysuru President Dr. S.B. Prakash too said that 90 percent there will be a strike and a decision on this will be taken at the Executive Committee meeting of IMA this evening.

“We have already conducted two days of protests on June 15 and 16 during which doctors wore black badges and participated in sit-in agitations and peace marches,” he added.

As the doctors’ strike snowballed into a nationwide issue, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan blamed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for precipitating the crisis in the first place. “She (Mamata) gave the doctors an ultimatum as a result of which they got angry and went on strike. I appeal to her not to make it a prestige issue,” Vardhan said.

He wrote a letter to Mamata, appealing to her to adopt a “compassionate approach” towards the doctors who “work for long hours under stressful conditions.”

“It is a matter of concern that the agitation by doctors in West Bengal is not heading towards resolution, but seems to be getting aggravated. Better communication with doctors and a compassionate approach to take care of the genuine problems being faced by them would definitely he helpful in tiding over the crisis,” Minister Harsh Vardhan wrote.

After an attack on doctors in Kolkata, the protesting doctors are demanding better security at hospitals. With striking junior doctors refusing to meet her yesterday, Mamata Banerjee invited them again to meet her this evening to end the impasse in Government hospitals.

The doctors refused to meet the CM, demanding an unconditional apology from her. They also put up six conditions for withdrawal of their stir.