5,000 resident doctors from Delhi strike to protest alleged delays in NEET counselling

The delays in admission to post-graduation courses might not only result in the washout of a year for the young medical students but has also resulted in a shortage of doctors in medical college-hospitals where a bulk of the work is handled by resident doctors.

Resident doctors stayed away from outpatient services at Delhi’s major government hospitals for the third day in a row, with no assurances from the Centre on the NEET PG counselling process.

Around 5,000 resident doctors from Delhi have so far joined their counterparts across the country in a strike to protest alleged delays in the NEET postgraduate counselling process.

The NEET exams were to happen in May, but were postponed to September due to the second wave of Covid-19. The counselling process was then delayed further because of an ongoing case in the Supreme Court regarding economic reservation.

The delays in admission to post-graduation courses might not only result in the washout of a year for the young medical students but has also resulted in a shortage of doctors in medical college-hospitals where a bulk of the work is handled by resident doctors.

“We have received verbal assurances from the minister, however, we will not take back our strike till something concrete is done,” said Dr Suvrankar Dutta, general secretary of the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), one of the two associations leading the nation-wide strike.

The doctors, after consulting resident doctors’ association from across the country, decided on Monday night that they will continue to not work in OPD but will not withdraw from other services till Friday.

“In the meeting with the minister on Saturday, as well as a meeting in the health ministry today, we received assurance that all documents that the Centre had to submit to the Supreme Court will be submitted by Wednesday and they will push for emergency hearing of the case. So, we have given time till Friday. If nothing happens we will withdraw from all routine work,” said Dr Manish Kumar, president of the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association, the other organisation leading the protests.

Another delegation of resident doctors had met the union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday in Surat and received the same assurances as well, according to Dr Dutta. So far, no cases of the new variant has been confirmed in India.

This is a matter of concern as the government now need to prepare healthcare infrastructure for the omicron variant that is now spreading to several countries.

In addition, resident doctors from Hindu Rao hospital continue their strike demanding payment of salaries and pending allowances. The senior doctors from the hospital, who had also planned to go on strike Monday onwards, have called it off as it would have rendered the hospitals, dispensaries, maternity and TB clinics under the north corporation dysfunctional.