Resident doctors, who are grappling with poor medical services in state-run medical colleges, have alleged that the most common infection seen among them, is tuberculosis. Six resident doctors from the city’s Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Government Medical College (BJMC) have tested positive for tuberculosis this year.
Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) had called for a statewide strike on August 7 highlighting irregular payment of stipend, absence of clear regulations for tuberculosis and maternity leaves. There are at least 16 state-run medical colleges with 4,500 resident doctors in Maharashtra, out of which at least 100 fall prey to tuberculosis every year.
At least 10 to 20 per cent of these affected doctors have been detected to have developed multi-drug resistance to tuberculosis (MDR-TB), according to officials.
Dr Ashutosh Jadhao, general secretary of MARD, said, “As of today, there are six residents from Sion (Mumbai), six residents from BJMC and five from Nagpur medical college, among others, who have been detected positive for tuberculosis. We have at least 16 state-run medical colleges with 4,500 resident doctors and out of these, at least 100 are falling prey to this deadly infection every year. This is due to poor health services and long working hours which causes the doctors to develop low immunity. Also, treatment for tuberculosis takes at least six months, hence, we demanded that the state government grant us ‘TB leaves’ for six months and also extend our term so that we do not miss out on our studies due to the disease.”
Jadhao added, “Given the poor doctor-patient ratio in the country, many a times we are forced to work for more than 24 hours at a stretch and during such times, asking for leave becomes difficult. Also, seniors often fail to sanction our leaves due to work load. However, this is adversely affecting our health. Tuberculosis is life threatening and being contagious, we demand to stay away from work and importantly patients, so that we can complete our drug regimen meticulously. There are many doctors, who are being treated for TB, but are forced to treat patients, which is risky. This increases the chances of passing on the infection to the patients. Hence, the government should be considerate enough to grant us six months’ leave.”
{{/usCountry}}Jadhao added, “Given the poor doctor-patient ratio in the country, many a times we are forced to work for more than 24 hours at a stretch and during such times, asking for leave becomes difficult. Also, seniors often fail to sanction our leaves due to work load. However, this is adversely affecting our health. Tuberculosis is life threatening and being contagious, we demand to stay away from work and importantly patients, so that we can complete our drug regimen meticulously. There are many doctors, who are being treated for TB, but are forced to treat patients, which is risky. This increases the chances of passing on the infection to the patients. Hence, the government should be considerate enough to grant us six months’ leave.”
{{/usCountry}}Dr Abhishek Jain, general secretary, Pune MARD, said, “Our health is at stake here. The state medical education department should consider our demands seriously.”
“There are also some residents who have developed XDR TB, which is extensive drug resistance, to the disease. They were never exposed to primary tuberculosis, but tested positive for XDR TB, which is very shocking. Health of resident doctors is being compromised. The state government should to listen to our woes,” added Jadhao.
Attempts to reach Dr TP Lahane, director medical education and research, Maharashtra and Girish Mahajan, minister, medical education and research, for comments failed.
4,500 members of MARD in state
At least 100 fall prey to tuberculosis every year, of these six resident doctors are from Pune, among others
Of the 100 and at least 10 to 20 per cent have been detected to have drug resistance tuberculosis which is even more dangerous. These doctors were never exposed to primary infection and were detected to have resistance to the disease
Treatment of tuberculosis requires six months or more to get fully cured, leaves for which is often denied to these resident doctors
Emergency cases tended to
Of the total 450 resident doctors at the Sassoon General Hospital, 283 were on strike on Wednesday. The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) had called for a strike on August 7, wherein 4,500 residents doctors participated from the state.
Dr Shishir Khose Patil, vice-president, central MARD and Pune MARD’s president, said, “Senior authority at Byramjee Jeejeebhoy (BJ) Medical College and Sassoon have requested us to cater to emergency services. We adhered to their request and stopped non-essential services in the hospital. Reason being, Pune is going through a crisis during the ongoing heavy rainfall and given the obvious scenario, we did not want to cripple the hospital’s medical services.”
Dr Kalyani Dongre, state president, MARD, said, “Not a single official from the state’s medical education ministry have called us for a meeting so far, which is very upsetting. We will keep protesting until our demands are met.”