Patients left stranded due to RTC strike

Hundreds of patients seeking immediate medical treatment in Hyderabad were badly hit by due to the RTC strike in the Telangana region. While many patients are unable to reach the State capital due to RTC bus strike, others are forced to pay exorbitant amounts to the private transport operators to get medical treatment.

"For two days we haven't got any transportation and finally, we paid Rs 3,000 for an Ambassador car to reach the city," Y Subhash Chanderbose a resident of Devendar Konda in Nalgonda district told INN on Wednesday. Subhash along with his wife Sunita Devi brought their two-and-a-half month daughter Seema to Niloufer Hospital. Seema has got stomach and liver infection and needed immediate medical treatment.

Similar is the story of M Narasimha Reddy of Yaprapally village of Khammam. His 82-year-old father Krishna Reddy is admitted the Yashoda Hosital at Malakpet for the last nine days. His money has exhausted and he does not have any ATM Card. He needed to go back to his village to more money for his father's treatment. But due to the strike, he is unable to move.

"I have no option but to beg for money on city roads," said Khatija Begum, whose two-year-old son is admitted in the Niloufer Hospital for liver infection. She hails from Armoor in Nizamabad district and need to go back to her house to get money.

Several patients are stranded in the city as they are unable to return to their homes due to the RTC bus strike. Mohammad Ali of Srisailam is one such victim. His 12-year-old son Mahmood was treated at the Osmania General Hospital for a leg injury. However, due to bus strike, he is unable to return home and is living outside the OGH for the last two days waiting for the strike to end.

Another patient, 57-year-old Laxmi Devi of Bhainsa, who was admitted in a private hospital for 27 days for treatment of throat cancer, is now forced to live in open at the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station for the last two days. "We are waiting for the strike to end. We don't have money to hire private vehicle. We don't even have any relatives in the city," she said.

While there are hundreds of cases wherein patients and their relatives got stranded in the city, there are even more number of patients in the districts waiting for the strike to end so that they could to the State Capital for treatment. (INN)