RMCH strike

The hospital, for obvious reasons, cannot provide the services that patients need when 200 interns are not performing their duties. The council of interns has set a six-point demand as part of their movement. The trouble started when a young doctor died at the hospital a few days ago, His colleagues believe that he died because the hospital failed to provide the necessary treatment.

That is no doubt an observation, which would give rise to a number of questions. It is not hard to imagine what kind of treatment people get in a hospital where one of its doctors had to die 'untreated.' It has further transpired that life-saving drugs were not available at the hospital and even the ECG machine was out of order. It seems many lapses and shortcomings created the situation in which the doctor had to die without the treatment that might have given him a chance of surviving.

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The death of the doctor has laid bare the total mismanagement and innumerable constraints that our hospitals are saddled with. Of course, there is no way to support a strike in a hospital, which certainly means suffering to innocent patients. But we must also take note of the fact that interns are going on strike from time to time, as their demands remain unfulfilled. The health authorities have to ensure that hospitals are not paralysed by interns agitating over issues like non-payment of salaries.

The RMCH strike had its origin in a death that the interns believe was avoidable. They have experienced anguish first-hand, as one of their colleagues became the victim of the very system that they work for. However, the interns, or all doctors for that matter, should realise that they must not cause the same anguish to the patients and their near and dear ones by creating an uncertain situation in a hospital. Introduction of a better and more reliable medicare service in the hospital is perhaps the best way to remember the doctor who died under unfortunate circumstances.