Demanding payment of pending salaries, as many as 698 senior resident doctors working at 29 government hospitals boycotted elective duties (out-patient consultations and ward duty) from Wednesday. They have also threatened to stop attending emergency duty from Friday — the occasion of National Doctor’s Day — if their demand is not met.
The senior residents who graduated from three medical colleges are supposed to be paid a monthly salary of ₹80,500, but it has been pending for two to seven months at the various hospitals.
One year work at government hospitals after completion of post-graduation is known as senior residency. The medicos, who have started their post-graduation in May 2018, completed studies in April 2021. Since the COVID-19 second wave was at its peak during that time, the government continued their services till August 15, according to Telangana Senior Resident Doctors Association (TSRDA). The batch started to work as senior resident doctors from November 2021.
Some of the young doctors convened at Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital in Mehdipatnam on Wednesday to highlight their grievance. Some of the placards that they were carrying read ‘EMI notices are received on time, but not salaries’ , ‘We have families to feed’, ‘Suffering but still serving’, etc.
Lined up at the entrance of the hospital’s emergency and in-patient block, they spoke about how the issue of pending salaries is impacting them. An embarrassing consequence of non-payment of salaries is that they are forced to ask for money from their parents, spouses or friends to meet their daily expenses or pay EMIs. Borrowing money after reaching close to 30 years of age, despite working, is not the ideal situation, they said.
Non-domiciled senior residents like Shweta Jagdeesh, who is from Chennai, says they have additional expenses including house rent.
The young doctors say that they have worked at hospitals from June to August 15 last year too, and requested that period to be considered as part of senior residency. With that done, their senior residency will get over next month.
Apart from salaries, the association members said they were not paid stipend for the month of May 2021, during the peak of COVID second wave. Mary Shereen, a doctor from King Koti hospital, said they had attended patients with Mucormycosis at that time.
