A 12-hour Statewide token strike by postgraduate medical students in medical colleges affected the functioning of outpatient services at the Government Medical College, Kozhikode, on Monday. They have warned of an indefinite strike in the coming days if their demands are not met.
The resident doctors boycotted all duties, except emergency services and COVID treatment. Other services were disrupted between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Functionaries of the Kerala Medical Post Graduate Association (KMPGA) said that apart from their status as tertiary medical care institutions, medical college hospitals were also training future doctors in various specialities. However, for the past one-and-a-half-years, they were being used only for COVID care.
They are apprehensive if the current rise in fresh cases was an indication of an impending third wave of the infection, which would necessitate setting up of more Intensive Care Unit wards and emergency wards, where resident doctors would be posted. That would again affect their academic work. KMPGA leaders said that major medical colleges in the State were short of at least 500 doctors because the third-year PG students were busy preparing for their exams and there had been a delay in conducting National-Eligibility-cum-Entrance test to take fresh batches. There was serious manpower shortage, they pointed out.
They are demanding that the COVID treatment be decentralised to other government hospitals by training doctors and other staff there. More senior resident seats be allocated in line with the seats in postgraduate courses. They claimed that the Finance Department had not notified the allocation of posts of 76 senior residents. The KMPGA functionaries sought restoring of the 4% hike in their stipend and appointment of doctors in medical colleges on contract basis. The posting of 2016 batch of MBBS house surgeons should be made as soon as their practical exams are over. The resident doctors also urged the government to set up a committee involving medical students to study how the pandemic affected medical education in the State.
