Form panel to hear resident docs’ plaints: HC to state, civic body

The Bombay high court (HC) has directed the state and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to form a committee to look into the grievances of resident doctors,

The Bombay high court (HC) has directed the state and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to form a committee to look into the grievances of resident doctors, over long working hours and poor living conditions, within two weeks.

HT Image

According to the HC order, the committee, comprising the secretary of the ministry of health; two deans of any two leading government medical colleges; two resident doctors from the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors; and the Municipal Corporation of Greater

Mumbai, must hear the complaints over a period of six months and submit a report thereafter.

A division bench of justices Akil Kureshi and SJ Kathawalla was hearing a petition filed by Dr Naresh Kabra and 13 other resident doctors from state and civic-run hospitals.

The petitioner’s counsel, advocate Charanjeet Chanderpal, told the judges that they had approached the court on the directions of the Supreme Court, which had ordered the HC to hear their grievances

over the plight of resident doctors pursuing post-graduate studies in state and corporation-run hospitals.

Chanderpal argued that the resident doctors were made to work long hours, often leading up to 12 to 14 hours of duty.

He told the court that their living conditions were not conducive to their well-being.

He further said that as resident doctors were under an obligation of a bond that they cannot leave or abandon their duties, there was need to address their grievances.

Both the state and the BMC, in their replies sought by the bench in an earlier hearing, agreed that there was a need to consider the grievances of resident doctors and that they were willing to abide by the HC’s directions.

The bench then directed the formation of the committee and said it must hear the resident doctors personally.

The matter has been posted for hearing in April 2020.