Rajasthan Health Services Hospitalised As Doctors' Strike Enters 16th Day

Rajasthan's healthcare services are under severe pressure due to a strike by doctors, which entered its 16th day today.

With private hospitals and diagnostic laboratories shut, government hospitals are burdened with a massive number of patients. Patients say they are unable to get admitted at government hospital due to the big rush.

The government hospitals are also admitting only patients who are in a serious condition. Even a simple X-ray has become a challenge, say patients.

Pregnant women say they are worried with the situation. They are anxious about which government hospital can admit them fast in case they go into labour.

Many have moved to neighbouring states for medical treatment.

The scenes are chaotic outside government hospitals, with guards managing large crowds, constantly blowing their whistles.

Rashid, 50, a semi-paralysed patient, was admitted in the general ward of a government hospital before he was discharged and sent to the outpatient department (OPD) to see a neurologist. The OPD shut down when his turn to see the doctor came.

"He has burst a blood vessel. He is paralysed and can't sit or talk. The doctors are not attending to him. They should treat him, but no one is attending to him," said Rashid's wife Parveen Bano.

A man who came to get his seven-year-old son's fractured leg plastered said they have only managed to get the leg bandaged. They don't know when the doctor will see them.

"No doctors are available. We hired an autorickshaw and came here. Now if we don't get treatment, we will go to Agra or some other neighbouring city," said Tarachand, sitting beside his son.

The deadlock between the government and medical professionals, however, continue over the Right to Health Bill, a key push of the Congress government led by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in an election year.

This bill seeks to make healthcare affordable and accessible by making everyone eligible for treatment as doctors will be duty-bound to see them, especially in emergency cases.

Private doctors, however, are not happy with the government decision. They say the bill does not define what can be categorised as an "emergency".

Doctors have also pointed out what they called other flaws in the bill, such as the question of how a person who suffered a heart attack can be treated in an orthopaedic hospital. The private doctors want compulsory medical care to be handled only by big multi-facility hospitals.

The Ashok Gehlot government also faces the risk of the doctors' protest against the bill affecting other flagship schemes, such as the Rs 25 lakh health cover under the Chiranjeevi Beema Yojana, with doctors threatening to pull out of the insurance scheme.

SMS Hospital spokesperson Dr Devendra Parikh said government hospital are working to their full capacity.

"Government hospitals are trying to work according to capacity. When resident doctors were on strike, there were problems, but we are trying to cope," Dr Parikh said.