By IANS,
New Delhi : Thousands of patients breathed a sigh of relief in the capital after junior doctors of the state-run Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital called off their five-day-old strike and returned to work Friday.
Over 200 resident doctors stayed off work for the last five days demanding better infrastructure, security arrangement and availability of life-saving drugs and oxygen cylinders.
The doctors’ strike almost paralyzed medical services in the hospital. Every day, nearly 5,000 patients from Delhi and neighbouring states were suffering from lack of medicare due to the protest at the LNJP Hospital.
“After several rounds of negotiations, the residents doctors have called off the strike. All of them have joined work this (Friday) morning,” Anjan Prakash, additional medical superintendent of LNJP, told IANS.
“All their demands cannot be fulfilled in one day, but we have assured them to fulfil all of them. The Delhi government has taken steps to ease the oxygen cylinder problem and we hope things will improve very soon,” she added.
Prakash said the Delhi government has already given a go-ahead for appointing 125 extra security guards. “As far as life-saving drugs are concerned, there is no shortage of it now,” she said.
The 78-year-old, 1,850-bed hospital is one of the leading healthcare service providers in Delhi. But it has been in news the last few years for attacks on doctors by patients’ relatives.
“I have been coming to visit a doctor for the last two days, but today (Friday) I managed to see the doctor,” said Abdullah Khan, an arthritis patient.
“These days doctors are protesting without bothering about patients. If doctors strike work what will happen to patients?” Khan asked.