Karnal: Efforts being made to run OPDs in urban areas, rural areas neglected

Parveen Arora

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Karnal, July 26

As the deadlock between the government and the Haryana Civil Medical Services Association over the latter’s demands persists, the strike of the government doctors entered its second day on Friday.

This forced the Health Department to depute doctors from Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC) to run OPD and other services at the Civil Hospital in Karnal.

Besides, seven consultants, two doctors from the newborn intensive care unit (NICU), eight doctors from Ayush and four community health officers have been working for the past two days to tide over this crisis.

This effort has provided some relief to the patients coming to Civil Hospital, but many were seen searching for their regular doctors.

However, these efforts are only for the urban areas, while hospitals in rural areas were badly affected due to the strike.

“I went to the Community Health Centre at Kunjpura, but had to return without getting myself checked. I had to finally go to a private hospital in Karnal,” said Rajpal, a resident of the area.

There are three sub-divisional hospitals, one each at Indri, Assandh and Nilokheri, eight community health centres and 25 primary health centres in the district. Due to the strike of doctors, residents of these areas had to either go to Karnal or were dependent on private doctors in their area.

“We will not resume duty till our demands are fulfilled,” said Dr Sandeep Abrol, district president of the HCMS Association

Dr Krishan Kumar, Civil Surgeon, said nine specialists, including orthopaedician, gynaecologist, ENT specialist, eye specialist, anaesthetist, paediatrician, surgeon and physician, along with their MBBS interns, have been deployed along with seven consultants, two doctors from the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU), eight doctors from Ayush, and four community health officers to ensure that healthcare services would not be affected.

Dr MK Garg, Director of KCGMC, confirmed their support by providing nine specialists to the District Civil Hospital.