E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, MAR 23 - Resident doctors at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) brought the entire services at the hospital to a complete halt from Tuesday.

Though the protesting doctors had allowed the emergency service to run, they decided on Monday to close all services saying no effort had been made to address their issues.

The doctors and consultants resorted to the strike since last Monday following a contention over an alleged misconduct in the entrance examinations for admission in the post-graduate faculties of medical science. The agitating doctors have accused Institute of Medicine (IoM) office bearers of leaking questions.

“The strike will continue until our demands are met,” said Sudan Thapa, Secretary of Free Students’ Union.

The resident doctors have been demanding that the IoM management cancel the tests that were held on March 13 and 14, the office bearers resign, and reschedule the tests as soon as possible.

TUTH Director Dr. Keshav Prasad Singh said that patients better not visit the hospital as no service will be provided. “Resident doctors are the backbone of the hospital and we cannot provide service without them,” said Dr. Singh. “We have only a few senior doctors who attend to patients only after resident doctors look into the cases.”

The hospital management, though, is planning to hold a meeting today, said Dr. Kafle. “We will discuss how to tackle the crisis in the absence of resident doctors.”

The resident doctors’ strike however has not affected those patients who have already been admitted.

The hospital, on a regular day, sees more than 1,000 OPD patients and 100 emergency cases.

President of Professor’s Association at IoM, Maharajgunj Campus and Senior Consultant Dr. Karbir Nath Yogi said, “It’s imperative that resident doctors be present at the hospital to run a hospital like TUTH.”

Some 300 resident doctors and interns and around 100 senior consultants and surgeons are presently working at the hospital.

Tribhuvan University on Friday formed a five-member committee under the coordination of Govinda Acharya, Dean of the Management Faculty at the university. But, the agitating doctors said in a press statement that they would neither entertain the committee, nor its report.

 

Posted on: 2010-03-23 12:00

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