Delhi: After GTB and IHBAS, doctors at LHMC complain of salary cuts

Doctors at LHMC and affiliated hospitals have written to Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya stating that they have not received salaries for the protest period despite assurances that no punitive action will be taken

Days after junior doctors of Delhi government-run Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital and Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) complained that their salaries were deducted and attendance cut for participating in protests to expedite the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) (postgraduate) counselling last year, the doctors of Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) and affiliated hospitals have written to Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya stating that they, too, have not received salaries for the protest period despite assurances that no punitive action will be taken.

Resident doctors of Safdarjung Hospital and Lady Hardinge Hospital stage a protest against the delay in the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) Postgraduate Counselling 2021, on December 30 last year. (ANI)

The resident doctors’ association of LHMC and associated hospitals, which includes Sucheta Kriplani Hospital and Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital, informed the health minister that they were marked absent for the duration of the protest and salaries cut accordingly. They also claimed that this was done despite an assurance from the administration that no punitive action will be taken against doctors who protested, based on which the strike to expedite NEET-PG counselling had been called off.

“Despite assurance that salaries of protesting doctors will not be deducted for the period of protests, our salaries have not been paid. We asked the administration to release the salaries but they have told us that until they get a written communication from the government, they cannot release the salaries. Hundreds of resident doctors from all of LHMC and associated hospitals have been affected by this pay cut,” said Dr Rakesh Bagdi, senior resident doctor at LHMC

In its letter to Mandaviya, the LHMC RDA said, “...It has come to our notice that despite these assurances, the attendance of resident doctors has been marked as leave for the duration of participation. This harsh action has been taken by LHMC administration and there is no such action in other central government hospitals. We the resident doctors of LHMC and associated hospitals request you to kindly look into the matter urgently and make the required intervention immediately so that the resident doctors who have already suffered during the Covid period get justice.”

This is not the first instance of junior doctors complaining of salary and attendance cuts for participating in protests last year. Last month, the resident doctors of GTB Hospital and IHBAS also said salaries of doctors who participated in the protests in November and December, seeking to expedite the NEET-PG counselling, were deducted. Some doctors were also marked absent for the whole protest period.