THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The token strike staged in Kerala Monday under the leadership of IMA and KGMOA as part of the protest of doctors all over the country supporting the striking doctors in West Bengal, is total. Speciality doctors under KGSDA too stayed away from the OP.

The services were hit and the patients too suffered difficulties as scores of doctors’ boycotted work in support of their striking colleagues in West Bengal, at General Hospitals, district hospitals and taluk headquarters hospitals. Usually large crowds are seen in OPs on Monday but even after a strike was announced earlier, there was a big rush. The patients who reached OP at 8 am were able to see the doctor only after two hours. Many from far off places reached the OP early morning. While medicos from the private sector opted for a day-long strike with just the casualty services to be made available; those in the government sector remained off duty for two hours from all out-patient services from 8 am to 10 am.

At the state-run medical colleges, teachers were on strike for an hour from 10 to 11 am.

All private clinics including dental clinics have also been asked to down their shutters for the day, a medical official said. The protests are against the brutal attack on two junior doctors in Kolkata by the family members of a dead patient in the NRS Medical College and Hospital that took place late on June 10, doctors across the West Bengal and later across India had stopped work.