Patients bear the brunt of Patna doctors strike - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Patients are facing the brunt of a three-day strike by junior doctors at the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) here. The interns are seeking an increase in their stipend from rupees 15,000 to rupees 25,000. The government, they say, hasn't heeded their plea since August, forcing them to go on with the strike. Several patients could be seen leaving the hospital with services being crippled. "It has been 24 hours, and no doctor has arrived to examine the patient yet. It's an emergency case, and now, we are taking the patient to a private shop," said Ram Kumar Singh, a patient's relative. Hospital authorities, however, claim they have enough staff to take care of emergency cases. "We had some difficulties initially on the first day, but then the number of doctors started increasing. Presently, we have enough doctors to handle emergency cases. As we have enough number of doctors, there should not be any complaints now," said R K Singh, Deputy Superintendent, PMCH.