Junior doctors ask for family medicine departments

HYDERABAD: After the recent incident of a patient with head injury dying at the Osmania general hospital (OGH) and relatives putting the blame on authorities, junior doctors have started demanding for emergency medicine and family medicine departments in government hospitals.

A letter has been shot off to health authorities in this regard. While government hospitals, serving as tertiary centres, have a huge patient load to carry, staff deficit and denial of services continue making life difficult for doctors there.

“The absence of family medicine specialities leads to large number of patients approaching district and tertiary centres. Such departments can serve at the rural level and reduce the load in cities,” said Dr PS Vijayender Goud, president, Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA).