Hospitals came to a standstill, patients call doctors “inhuman”
The state sector healthcare delivery came to a standstill as a result of the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) resorting to a one day token strike on five demands.the strike was launched at a time when the dengue epidemic gripping the country and the general public and patients in particular expressing their protest and condemnation over doctors’ trade union action. The doctors were on strike from on five demands.they wanted the government to explain as to why the police attempted to arrest medical student Ryan Jayalath who was on an arrest warrant for allegedly causing damage to public property, to punish police officers who came to arrest him, an undertaking from the government not to repeat a similar incident. Asst. General Secretary of the GMOA Dr. Navin De Soyza said the government dentists and Ayurveda doctors were also on strike in support of the GMOA.
Director of the Colombo National Hospital (CNH),DR.ANIL Jasinghe said patients attending Outdoor Patients Departments (OPDS), clinics and cardio thoracic units were the most affected by the one day strike.
Dr. Jasingha said routine surgeries were postponed at the CNH and the OPD, Cardiology Unit and clinics were not functioning and admission of patients had been suspended. Asst. General Secretary of the GMOA Dr. Navin De Soyza said all children’s hospitals and maternity homes such as the Lady Ridgeway Hospital Borella, De Soyza Maternity Home, Castle Street Maternity Hospital, Sirimavo Bandaranaike Children’s Home in Kandy, National Cancer Institute Maharagama, Thelippalai, Jaffna, and all Emergency Treatment Units and Accident Services were kept open with a skeleton medical staff island wide to attend to any emergencies.
Meanwhile, patients who had attended the OPD and clinics at the CNH unaware of the token strike were extremely critical and angered over the trade union action by doctors.
Mrs.a.r.attanayaka Menike (51) of Gurubawila in Balangoda who had come for a monthly check up and to obtain her medicine following the removal of her bladder was totally devastated as she had to return home empty handed.
“I left home around 2.00 this morning to come to the monthly clinic at the General Hospital. Unfortunately, because of the inhuman attitude of doctors, I have to go back without seeing the doctor and without medicine for the next month.the government doctors who came to this position through our help must not do this to us,” she lamented.
K.A. Danasena Fernando (62) of 75/13/D, Ferguson Rd, Colombo 14 while cursing the striking doctors added that government doctors who were once a respected lot in the society had fully lost their credibility and respect because they are in a move to take the poor into ransom for their political agendas. ”Before long, there will be a day doctors will be attacked openly by the public if they continue to behave like this,” he said.
Mr. A.G.R. Bandara (60) was fully critical of the government’s kneejerk attitude on striking doctors and said doctors are not allowed to resort to trade union action in many countries. He had come to the OPD to see a doctor for an ailment in his spinal cord. He said the trade union action of doctors cannot be justified under any condition and said it was extremely inhumane, unethical and indecent to the core.