Niloufer Jr doctors deny deaths due to strike

Hyderabad, May 8 (INN): AP Junior Doctors Association representative of the Niloufer Children's Hospital Chiluka Sudhakar on Sunday denied that the strike by the junior doctors was in no way responsible for the death of the eight infants who passed away while undergoing treatment.

Talking to INN, Dr Sudhakar said that the media, particularly the television channels have gone to town claiming that the eight children had died due to the boycott of services by junior doctors, who are protesting in demand of security for them.

He added that there was nothing out of the ordinary about the number of children who died on Sunday, since infants, from the ages of 0 to 29 days are brought to the hospital from across the state, more often than not in a critical stage, after doctors at other hospitals give up hope.

Giving figures, Dr Sudhakar said that on Saturday 14 children had died in the hospital, while on Friday four deaths were reported, and Thursday saw 10 children dying and so on.

He added that the hospital sees between 300 to 400 children being brought to the hospital out of which, 35 to 50 per cent are admitted each day. 'The ICU in the hospital has an average of around 150 children aged between 0 to 29 days and around 180 children are treated in the six other emergency wards.

The hospital provides treatment for children up to 18 years of age, but generally only children up to ten years of age arrive here. The doctors try their best to provide treatment to these patients, but lack of proper facilities invariably leads to the deaths of some of the most critical ones, despite our best effort,' Dr Sudhakar said.

He added that the parents and their relatives more often than not blame the doctors for the deaths of the children, despite the fact that their wards are brought here in a critical condition.

'That is the reason junior doctors, who face the brunt of the parents' wrath, are demanding increased security in all government hospitals,' Dr Sudhakar added.

He continued, 'The Human Rights Commission had directed the Hospital and Home Department to depute Special Protection Force for junior doctors' security on December 8, 2007. These directions were followed from December 12, 2007. However, the Home Department withdrew the security on May 12, 2010, after Medical Department failed to pay arrears of Rs 1 crore to the Home Department.'

'The junior doctors had warned that they would be forced to boycott duties and have staged protests from April 21, 2011. The authorities remain unmoved and the doctors are forced to boycott duties now,' he pointed out.

Dr Sudhakar further complained that the government is providing Rs 1250 crore for Arogyasri but not releasing any funds to provide basic infrastructure and other facilities at Government Hospitals.

He added that 50 per cent of child deaths can be prevented if proper equipment is provided to all the government hospitals in all the districts of the state.

Meanwhile, the junior doctors who had boycotted duties since Saturday evening at the government hospitals continued to remain adamant that they will not resume work till their demands are met.

Some of the protesting doctors burnt an effigy depicting the state government after negotiations failed. Health Education Director Ravi Raj told media persons that the government has appointed a Committee which will study the junior doctor's demand and submit its report within seven days.

The government will then take a decision within a month on how to enhance security at the government hospitals. Earlier on Friday, one of the protesting doctors at the Osmania General Hospital Ravi Kumar had said that lack of medical equipment and medicines invariably leads to the health of the patients suffering and the patients' relatives invariably turn their wrath on the medical staff.

'We are easy targets for irate relatives, even though we do our best to provide proper treatment. What can we do if the hospital suffers from lack of proper medical equipment or medicines? It is the duty of the hospital authorities to ensure that these medicines and equipment are provided so that we carry on with our work of treating patients,' he had said.

'The relatives easily lose their composure and target us, especially if there is a delay in attending to a patient. We have to cope with a huge number of patients at the hospital and invariably giving attention to some or the other patient is delayed. We face abuse and sometimes physical violence, even though we do our duty,' Dr Ravi Kumar had added.

'Amazingly, the senior doctors are never targeted while we have to face the irate relatives,' another doctor said.

Another reason behind the frequent triggering off of tempers is the lack of medicines at the hospital. The inadequate supply of medicines means that patients will have to buy them from drugstores outside. 'Most of the patients being economically backward, opt for treatment at the government hospital. For them, buying medicines outside is not easy. They lose their cool when told to do so and this aggravates the problem,' the protesting doctors said.