Doctors' strike: OPD services likely to be affected today in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: The nation-wide strike call given by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) protesting the attack on doctors in West Bengal might affect the outpatient department (OPD) services in the state on Monday.
The IMA Odisha, which conducted a meeting on Sunday evening, has clarified that they will go ahead with the nation-wide strike call given by its national body. They appealed all the hospitals to withdraw non-essential services like OPD facilities starting from 6 am on Monday to 6 am on Tuesday.
Janmejaya Mohapatra, honorary state secretary of IMA Odisha, said emergency services in the hospitals will not be affected due to their strike.He said the Odisha Medical Services Association (OMSA), Odisha Medical Teachers Association (OMTA), Junior Doctors Association, Resident Doctors Association, IMA Students Network and Nursing Home Association have supported the strike.
“Attack against doctors in hospitals has become a common thing nowadays, so we want a national-level law for safety and security of the doctors. Hospitals should be declared as safe zone. All associations have extended support for our strike,” said Mohapatra.
Keeping the strike in mind, the state government has asked the medical colleges and hospitals to ensure that patient care services should not be affected on Monday. “Doctors have been requested that if they wish to, they may carry out token protests, but they must ensure that patient care services are not affected in any way,” said health secretary Pramod Kumar Meherda.
Meherda said the department has taken several steps for safety and security of doctors. Implementation is being reviewed on a regular basis, he added.
In a meeting held on Sunday at SCB medical college at Cuttack, the dean and principal of the college decided that if there is a protest by junior doctors, all the routine and emergency works will be managed by the faculties of the concerned departments so that there will be no disruption in the patient care. The heads of the departments have been instructed accordingly to keep their faculties in readiness to manage the work both in casualty, routine OPD and ward duty without fail, said the letter of the medical college. Other medical colleges and chief district medical officers have also issued the same directions, said official sources.