Osmania General Hospital doctors boycott duties for third day

Medicos take out a ‘black badge’ protest, ask State government to speed up work on new building.

Published: 12th September 2020 08:04 AM | Last Updated: 12th September 2020 08:17 AM | A+A A-

Members of the Junior Doctors Associations protest in front of Outpatients block at Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad on Wednesday

By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: THE doctors at Osmania General Hospital (OGH) boycotted duties for the third consecutive day on Friday. Nearly 180 PG doctors gave elective surgery duties a miss in the General Surgery and Orthopaedics departments.

The doctors also refused to offer OPD and ward services, in a bid to mount pressure on the administration to increase the number of wards for patients. They took out a ‘black badge’ protest across the campus demanding that the government expedite work on the new building and set up a fully functional operation theatre.

The matter escalated after nearly 20 patients being treated in these two departments contracted Covid in the hospital wards owing to an indefinite wait for surgeries. The doctors had appealed to the management to set up a temporary operation theatre in the Quli Qutub Shah building. However, it did not materialise as it was too small.

“We are in talks with the superintendent and we have been invited for negotiations. We will not end the strike until a deadline is given as to when the issues would be resolved,” said a representative of OGH-JUDA.

2,426
Covid cases were recorded in Telangana in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 1,52,602.
The State also saw 13 deaths due to the virus