After attending to patients, some of whom have come from Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, till the evening on Thursday, Dr. Purna Chandra Mohapatra, a retired professor from the SCB Medical College, Cuttack, finally sat for lunch. It is not uncommon for the mustachioed doctor to have lunch this late as his breaks depend on the length of the queue outside his chamber.
Dr. Mohapatra, 68, a renowned gynaecologist, is the BJP’s candidate for the Cuttack-Barabati Assembly seat. For decades, he has had to make do with only three to four hours of sleep as patientcare kept him busy. It still does. People recall occasions when numerous women would line up for consultation at odd hours, even as late as 1 a.m., outside his nursing home in Sector 8 of Cuttack’s CDA Colony. The doctor doesn’t charge any fee for outpatient services.
After the BJP fielded Dr. Mohapatra in the Assembly election on Thursday, political observers in the State began wondering if his transition into politics would be at the cost of patientcare. Replacing a busy gynaecologist, whose appointment diary is always full, will be difficult. Patients book slots for surgery two months in advance and some wait overnight to secure a consultation for the next day.
