Visakhapatnam: Medical services will be hit hard on Saturday following a 24-hour nationwide strike called by Indian Medical Association (IMA) in protest against the rape and murder of a PG student of RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata.
Medicare at government hospitals will not be available in AP, including at King George Hospital (KGH) in Visakhapatnam, for some more days to come due to an indefinite strike call given by Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctors’ Association.
All the heads of medical departments in the state are taking contingency measures to provide care to people.
“I have asked district medical and health officers in the state to provide doctors and pharmacists and nursing colleges to make available their students for some days. We may also hire 700 doctors, as we have a huge flow of patients at KGH from all over north Andhra and neighbouring Odisha and Chhattisgarh every day,” superintendent of King George Hospital Dr. K. Sivanand told this correspondent on Friday.
Dr. Sivanand pointed out that on an average, KGH treats 3,500 outpatients and performs 170 types of surgeries. “We will maximise our services with minimum available resources,” the superintendent stated.
Visakhapatnam district alone has over 7,000 doctors working at government hospitals, with 2,000 of them deployed at KGH alone. Vizianagaram district has 2,000 and Srikakulam around 1,000 doctors.
Sources said doctors of corporate hospitals and private clinics will also participate in the Saturday’s strike to protest against the rape and murder at the Kolkata hospital.
District medical and health officers of Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam have maintained that the strike will be no impact primary health centres (PHCs) and community hospitals in districts. Visakhapatnam has 60 PHCs in the urban sector and eight in rural.
When contacted, ASR district collector A.S. Dinesh Kumar said, “We have not received any communication from IMA so far. Hopefully all the hospitals will work normally.”
