I will call them and discuss: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to ANI on doctors' strike #Bengaluru https://t.co/NwoI8Tim6S — ANI (@ANI) 1510810238000

Given the discussions that we had with the CM, we are clear he is going to take an appropriate and responsible deci… https://t.co/RwoekHX0SQ — ANI (@ANI) 1510808784000

BENGALURU: While majority of city private hospitals claimed that they had put up prior notices regarding Out-Patient Department (OPD) services to be shut on Thursday as a protest against the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment (Amendment) Act (KPME) that was refined last week by the state government , several patients were seen waiting at OPD in these hospitals on Friday morning.Raghu (name changed) and his wife travelled all the way from Mysuru to HCG Cancer Hospital for a blood test and follow up as scheduled with the doctor. While the hospital authorities said that all patients have been informed about today’s strike via SMS, Raghu was completely unaware of it.“We haven’t received any text from the hospital and neither did we receive the test results today as we were promised earlier. Now that we came to know the strike might be for indefinite period of time, we are stuck and we don’t know what to do,” said Raghu.The situation was no different in Columbia Asia Hospital, Hebbal and St. John’s Hospital in Koramangala. D Sushil (name changed), scheduled for a critical angiogram and follow up tests after a stroke in Columbia Asia has not been intimated about whether he should go in for the procedure on Friday. While it is not an emergency doctors have told him to closely monitor blood thickness regularly to change the dosage and he too is left hanging.A large number of patients who had come for OPD service were seen rolling out mats and settling down within St. John’s Hospital campus with the day’s stock of food and water. “All we can do is wait for the doctors to see us. While it is even worst situation in districts with private hospitals shutting down OPD, we had come to the city with high hopes of meeting a doctor,” said Rajanna (name changed) who came from Belagavi for treatment.No emergency and in-house services however have been hampered in these hospitals, say sources.The city government hospitals, however, have not seen any unusual surge in number of OPD patients in the early hours. While Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology has seen normal crowd of OPD patients in the morning on Thursday, there were additional patients in ICU. “While our ICU is a 100 bed facility, there has been a considerable crowd in ICU unlike other days. OPD did not get much affected as for elective procedures patients can wait for a day or two and postpone their appointment scheduled at private hospitals,” said Dr CN Manjunath , director at Jayadeva Hospital.While National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) had seen a 20% increase in number of OPD patients on last Monday when private doctors initiated the strike in Belagavi, on Thursday morning, no unusual number of patients were seen at the OPD.Dr BN Gangadhar, director at NIMHANS said: “We are prepared with a contingency plan to meet demands of extra patients as the numbers at OPD might increase later in the day.”Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health had 200 patients at OPD till 10:30 am which according to a hospital staff is normal. “All throughout the day we get around 500 patients at OPD and the morning hours see 200 to 250 patients on a daily basis,” the staff said.Over 500 doctors, private health care industry leaders like Dr Devi Shetty , founder, Narayana Health, Dr Bhujang Shetty Chairman of Narayana Netralaya, Dr Nagendra Swamy, president, Federation of Private Association Karnataka, Dr Ajai Kumar from HCG hospital assembled in front of Indian Medical Association (IMA), Chamrajpet opposing the KPME Act."This is do or die situation for private health care sector in Karnataka. We have emergency services, dialysis units, chemotherapy services going on. It does cause some amount of inconvenience to public we hope the government understands the issues and considers our appeal,” said Dr H Sudarshan Ballal , renowned nephrologist, chairman, Manipal hospitals."Justice Vikramjit Sen report clearly said that the act must regulate government hospitals as well. And hence change the name of the act as Karnataka Medical regulation Act and drop the word 'private' from the act. But the government didn't consider the same. Why should the government hospitals be left out of regulations? " added Dr R Ravindra, member of Private hospitals and nursing homes association (PHANA).The commissioner of health has directed all district Health Officers (DHO) and Taluk Health Officers (THO) to depute Mobile Medical Unit (MMU) in suitable localities within the districts to meet the emergency needs of patients till the crisis of KPME Act is resolved.