Think Beyond A Strike

Flaws in our medical system and uncertainty surrounding the security of medical professionals call for concrete measures to bring back trust among doctors and patients

- Raelene Kambli

Recently, Maharashtra witnessed one of the worst healthcare crisis when 60 per cent of resident doctors across the state went on a strike. The strike was led by Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) in order to raise their voices against the rising incidences of violence against doctors and medical establishment. The strike lasted for five days affecting around 40 hospitals in Mumbai alone, resulting in a serious resource crunch that caused severe disruption to healthcare services. The most affected units in the state were the emergency health services, surgeries, post-operative care departments, ICUs and OPD services. As per Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) report on March 24 , 2017, 135 patients died due to lack of availability of emergency services in three BMC hospitals in Mumbai. The worst hit were patients coming from the lower socioeconomic strata who lined up outside government hospitals across the state waiting to be treated. Owing to the crisis situation, the Maharashtra government and the Bombay High Court had come down heavily on the doctors and had threatened them to be suspended or terminated from their services.

In a press conference, Maharashtra CM, Devendra Fadnavis, gave a legislative warning to the doctors and asked them to resume work immediatel., He also said that he failed to understand the insensitive attitude of doctors of leaving patients to die. However, doctors were too perturbed to understand the damage that was caused due to the strike.