The on-going junior doctors’ strike in Telangana has spread to the State with junior doctors working at Government General Hospital in the city staging a protest on the hospital premises on Monday in support of their demands, including abolishment of one year rural service.
Wearing black badges, the junior doctors raised slogans and staged a protest at the Principal’s office for more than two hours. However, hospital authorities claimed that there was no inconvenience to the patients as the junior doctors attended emergency and other regular services.
“We are not against the mandatory rural service but want the government to make the postings on a permanent basis and not as temporary basis,” said Dr. Naresh, treasurer of A.P. Junior Doctors Association.
There is a misconception among different sections of the society that junior doctors are against the rural service but that is not correct. Under the rural service, the government is posting junior doctors in urban areas in Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Kurnool and Hyderabad on a temporary basis for obtaining funds from central government, alleged Dr. Naresh.
In addition to the mandatory rural service, the junior doctors are demanding the government to fill up the assistant professor posts under non-service quota at the earliest. It has been a long time since the “mutual agreement” entered by the government and junior doctors, is implemented. There is an emphasis on special protection force, emergency services upgradation in teaching hospitals in the agreement. The junior doctors association said it would submit representations to the Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas and wanted the Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu to resolve the issue. “We will be deciding our future course of action based on the High Court’s verdict today,” said Dr. Naresh.
