Junior doctors attached to the King George Hospital and other teaching hospitals of Andhra Medical College here continued their strike on Monday by boycotting elective duties and attending only emergency work.
Junior doctors of the Government medical colleges all over the State are on strike demanding a firm assurance from the Government that their stipend would not be delayed in future. After junior doctors here and two other places went on strike, first by staging dharnas for five days in front of the government teaching hospitals demanding release of stipend for four months and to ensure that the stipend is paid regularly in future, the strike spread to other government colleges even though the Government released budget for the pending amount and for stipend till March.
Seeking a firm assurance the junior doctors decided to boycott emergency work also from December 1 last and called off this part of the agitation on January 8 after the Health Minister gave an oral assurance.
Till now they were not attending the elective duties and KGH and other hospitals are engaging teaching faculty from AMC to take care of the patients. The in-service PG students who are about one-third of the PG students are on duty. On Monday, Superintendent of KGH P. Shyam Kumar was also on duty at the out-patient department.
However, the absence of junior doctors is expected to be felt within a day or two because the Sankranti festivities are over and patients would start coming to KGH in good numbers. There is also the need to perform the elective surgeries which are being postponed.
