HBT Trauma Care doctors to go on strike over non-payment of salary

Doctors manning the intensive care units (ICUs) at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run Hindu Hruday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Trauma Care, Jogeshwari, have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from Tuesday over non-payment of salaries for the last seven months

Mumbai: Doctors manning the intensive care units (ICUs) at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run Hindu Hruday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Trauma Care, Jogeshwari, have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from Tuesday over non-payment of salaries for the last seven months. Each doctor has close to ₹5-8 lakh pending as salary.

Newly constructed BMC Trauma Care Hospital, Aajgaonkar Plot, Western Express highway, Jogeshwari, Mumbai, India 19/10/2013 Photo By SANJAY SOLANKI (Hindustan Times)

The 14-storey Jogeshwari Hospital has three ICUs- surgical, medical and trauma—that are managed by 10 doctors in shifts. The BMC had tied up with Jeevan Jyot Charitable Trust to provide doctors to manage its 30 ICU beds.

On February 21, the doctors had written to the hospital administration and additional municipal commissioner Sanjeev Kumar expressing their concerns over non-payment of salaries and financial difficulties being faced by them.

“We have been verbally and physically following up on the issue with the administration for the last few months. We understand that as per the contract between the corporation and the trust, the trust is supposed to clear our salaries. But they have not. Since we are serving the patients in BMC hospital and informed the authorities about the trust not paying our salary, it is the moral responsibility of the corporation to stop paying the trust and inquire why our salaries have not been paid,” one of the doctors said.

Most of the ICU doctors started working in the hospital in 2017 when Jeevan Jyot Charitable Trust got the tender. He said when they submitted their letter on February 21, they were assured that payment would be done by March 4. “Still there is no sign of salary. We have two demands: pay our dues and cancel the trust’s tender. Since there are patients on ventilators, we are not going on strike immediately. But, from Tuesday, we will not resume work until our dues are paid,” another doctor said.

While Dr Kumar, to whom the doctors have written the letter, did not respond, Dr Shailesh Mohite, dean of RN Cooper Hospital under whom the hospital comes, said he will look into the matter.

Meanwhile, the Municipal Medical Teachers Association (MMTA) met municipal commissioner IS Chahal on Friday to express their opposition to the decision on extending the retirement age of medical teachers from 62 to 64. They had alleged that the corporation has not been hiring full-time doctors because of which there has been stagnancy and may affect overall healthcare in civic hospitals.

“There are many medical teachers who are on contracts and have been working for years now. They do not have many facilities that a permanent doctor gets, including casual leaves. There is no MPSC recruitment happening. This is not a good trend and will hamper the healthcare in BMC hospitals in the coming days,” one of the MMTA members said.

Dr Rachana Chaturvedi, MMTA member from KEM Hospital, said there should be time-bound promotions. “We are more against age extension because there are no time-bound promotions happening. Most of the medical teachers have been working on an ad-hoc basis for years now. If things continue like the way it is, many medical teachers will resign out of frustration. There is stagnancy and no growth,” she said.