Wenlock surgeons stage protest, later call it off

House surgeons at the Government Wenlock Hospital staged a protest here on Wednesday seeking stipend and later called it off following an assurance by the officials of the Department of Health and Family Welfare.

As many as 54 house surgeons from Kasturba Medical College, Mangaluru, who are serving at the Government Wenlock and Lady Goschen hospitals and the primary health centres, have not received their monthly stipend for about a year. Each of the house surgeons should get ₹20,000 a month for their one-year long internship.

Raising slogans , the surgeons sat outside the casualty block of the Wenlock Hosptial on Wednesday. “There have been lot of the assurances. We need a written assurance for resolving the issue,” said surgeon Nihal Rai.

As the protest was on, the Wenlock Hospital Superintendent H.S. Rajeshwaridevi called officials in Bengaluru and to the new Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar. She promised action and asked the surgeons to resume work, but they did not relent and sought a written assurance.

Surgeon Kuldeep told Dr. Rajeshwaridevi that Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan, who held the portfolio of Medical Education, has so far not acted on his assurance of directing the Kasturba Medical College to pay the stipend.

Another house surgeon said that despite the Department of Health and Family Welfare writing to the Wenlock Hospital to make the payment through hosptial’s Arogya Raksha Samiti funds, the surgeons have not received their stipend.

Around noon, surgeon Chirantan Suhird, who is the president of Interns’ Council, called Commissioner, Health and Family Welfare, Pankaj Kumar Pandey, who reportedly promised announcing a timeline in the payment of stipend by evening. Following this, the surgeons called off their protest around 1 p.m. and said they will resort to the protest again if the stalemate continued.