HBT Trauma Care doctors receive partial dues

Mumbai: Four days after HT reported that doctors manning the intensive care unit (ICU) at Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) Hindu Hruday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Trauma Care, Jogeshwari, have threatened to go on a strike over non-payment of salaries since August 2022, on Wednesday they received their dues up to December 2022

Mumbai: Four days after HT reported that doctors manning the intensive care unit (ICU) at Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) Hindu Hruday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Trauma Care, Jogeshwari, have threatened to go on a strike over non-payment of salaries since August 2022, on Wednesday they received their dues up to December 2022.

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The doctors have been assured that the balance amount will be paid within a week. “We have finally received our salaries from August to December 2022. Each of us had close to close to ₹5-8 lakh worth of dues pending. This was leading to many financial problems,” one of the ICU doctors said.

The BMC had tied up with Jeevan Jyot Charitable Trust to provide doctors to manage the facility’s 30 ICU beds. Most of the doctors began working in the hospital in 2017, when Jeevan Jyot Charitable Trust (JJCT) got the tender.

The doctors had submitted a letter to the BMC additional municipal commissioner, dean of RN Cooper Hospital and medical superintendent of the HBTTC on February 21, saying they will go on a strike if outstanding dues were not paid.

“But we were unable to go on a strike because there were patients on the ventilator. We have requested the BMC to hold an inquiry on the Trust for delaying our salaries as we are serving the patients in BMC hospital. The Corporation should stop paying the Trust. This is not the first time that our salary was delayed, but this is the longest period for which we were not paid,” another doctor said.

Dr Sanjeev Kumar, additional municipal commissioner (health), BMC, to whom protesting doctors wrote the complaints, did not respond to requests for comment. A senior health department official, however, claimed that they are in process of setting up an inquiry against the JJCT.