AIIMS, Safdarjung doctors resume work, take out candle light march

AIIMS’ resident doctors also took out a candle light march on Saturday evening in solidarity with protesting doctors in West Bengal.

Resident doctors of AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital resumed work after a boycott on Friday, but have given a 48-hour ultimatum to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to meet the demands of the state’s agitating doctors, failing which they said they would go on an indefinite strike.

Resident doctors of AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital resumed work after a boycott on Friday. (Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

AIIMS’ resident doctors also took out a candle light march on Saturday evening in solidarity with protesting doctors in West Bengal.

Patients in the national capital meanwhile faced hardships for the second consecutive day as the protest spread to several government hospitals on Saturday. Doctors at the Centre-run Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital, and RML Hospital, and Delhi government healthcare facilities such as GTB Hospital, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital and DDU Hospital, boycotted work and held protests.

However, emergency and ICU services in these hospitals were not hampered.

Junior doctors in Kolkata have been on strike after a colleague of theirs was attacked and injured over an issue of alleged negligence at the NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on Tuesday.

A 28-year-old pregnant woman who visited Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital for a follow-up check up claimed she could not find a doctor in the out-patient department (OPD).

“My ultrasound is due. I always come to this hospital for a check-up, but I could not find a doctor to consult today. Now I have to go somewhere else but I have learnt that protests are on at other hospitals too. We patients are facing a lot of difficulties because of the strike,” she said.