Resident doctors in Maharashtra continue strike

Nearly 6,000 resident doctors from 18 medical colleges across Maharashtra joined the protest on Friday

Mumbai: Resident doctors from Maharashtra continued to strike on the third consecutive day on Friday, even as their counterparts in New Delhi called off their strike to protest against delays in releasing the NEET-PG counselling date. Nearly 6,000 resident doctors from 18 medical colleges across Maharashtra joined the protest on Friday, according to the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD).

Resident doctors from Maharashtra continued to strike on the third consecutive day on Friday, even as their counterparts in New Delhi called off their strike to protest against delays in releasing the NEET-PG counselling date (HT)

The NEET PG (National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test) counselling process has been delayed as the Supreme Court is hearing a clutch of cases pertaining to economic reservations.

Around 1,500 resident doctors from four hospitals in Mumbai participated in the strike. Doctors from KEM Hospital in Parel and LTMG Hospital in Sion started the protest on Wednesday, but more doctors from these hospitals joined the strike on Thursday. While JJ Hospital in Byculla withdrew services on Thursday, BYL Nair hospital in Mumbai Central joined the protest on Friday. The doctors however continued to work in the Covid-19 wards.

Dr Hanumant Phad, general secretary, MARD, said: “We are going to continue the strike as we want the dates to be declared soon. We also want hospitals to consider appointing doctors who have passed their medical course to manage the Out Patient Departments (OPD). At present, we are overworked and new doctors should be appointed to release some burden,” he said.

Resident doctors from across India started their protest over a month ago, which intensified in the past fortnight after a group of junior doctors were allegedly beaten up by Delhi police during a protest march.

The protests were triggered on account of delays in placing doctors at government hospitals, as the SC is considering a policy to increase the share seats reserved for underrepresented communities.

In addition to the delay in the NEET-PG counselling, the city’s resident doctors are also demanding the waiver of their academic fees and a risk incentive for services rendered during the pandemic, which was promised to them by the civic body.

The protest resulted in the civic-run LTMG hospital postponing several elective surgeries. “On an average, we conduct 400 surgeries in a day, but since Thursday we had to postpone 100-110 elective surgeries. The emergency services remain unaffected,” said hospital dean Dr Mohan Joshi adding that there was no impact on the OPD as the senior doctors and faculty members were called in.

BYL Nair Hospital’s assistant medical officer Dr Sarika Chapane said that there was no impact of any services. “Only half of the resident doctors in the hospital had joined the strike,” she said.

The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) in Delhi on Friday announced that it was calling off the strike after protesting doctors said that in a meeting with representatives from the Union health ministry, they were assured that the government would submit a committee report to the SC by January 6 and publish the NEET-PG 2021 counselling schedule following the court hearing set on that date.

(With inputs from Rhythma Kaul)