About 4,000 resident doctors of the Central Government-run Safdarjung Hospital, RML Hospital, and Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) boycotted work for the third consecutive day, except for COVID-19 duty, as a protest against delay in PG NEET counselling, said the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) on Wednesday.
The protest is intensifying with more resident doctors’ associations (RDA) joining in. “We have been boycotting OPD and routine services till now. From Thursday, we will be boycotting emergency services also. We took out a march, along with doctors from IHBAS and GTB Hospital, to the District Magistrate’s office and presented a list of grievances,” said Dr. Aditya, president of RDA of GTB Hospital.
Resident doctors at Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) and associated hospitals too will boycott work from Thursday.
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“The residents including all regular and ad-hoc senior residents, postgraduate students, non-academic junior residents and interns of MAMC and associated hospitals (Lok Nayak Hospital, GB Pant Hospital and Guru Nanak Eye Centre) will boycott routine and emergency services. Functioning of ICU and COVID wards will not be affected to safeguard the interests of critically-ill patients,” the RDA of MAMC said in a statement.
Cong. calls for solution
Meanwhile, the Delhi Congress on Wednesday demanded an urgent solution to the issue of NEET (PG counselling) and said that the Central Government had not bothered to address the doctors’ demand yet. It added that due to the strike, OPDs and ICUs have been shut in many hospitals, creating a dangerous situation for patients.
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Delhi Congress chief Ch. Anil Kumar said that the Central Government and the BJP-ruled municipal corporations were being inconsiderate to doctors despite them being on strike for the past few days. The BJP Government has not bothered to find a solution to the doctors’ cause.
“The Government should immediately address the issue so that functioning of hospitals is not affected, and patients are not put to difficulty, as has been happening for the past few days. He said that doctors and others in the health sector had played an unforgettable role in tackling the pandemic crisis when hospitals were overflowing with COVID-19 patients, and the timely attention of the doctors saved many lives,” Mr. Kumar said.
He added that with the threat of the new COVID variant looming and a rise in infection rate, it would be dangerous for hospital services to remain shut indefinitely due to the irresponsibility of the Modi Government.