NEET-PG counselling: Resident doctors' strike enters day 2; patient care services impacted

On December 18, patient care services were disrupted for the second day in a row when resident doctors at three Centre-run hospitals boycotted all services, including emergency, as part of a nationwide protest organised by Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) against the delay in NEET-PG 2021 counselling. On Friday, resident doctors from Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, Safdarjung, and Lady Hardinge hospitals began their strike, alleging that the government had made a false promise.

They cited an "acute shortage" of resident doctors across the country, citing the fact that the NEET-PG 2021 batch's counselling has already been postponed by eight months. Following the health ministry's commitment to accelerate court hearings and, as a result, fast-track the counselling process, resident doctors announced on December 9 that the agitation organised by FORDA will be suspended for a week.

"The plight of overburdened and exhausted resident doctors seems to have fallen on deaf ears of the authorities who do not seem to be concerned about the shortage of healthcare workforce due to non-admission of fresh batch of resident doctors. "With the threat of third wave of COVID-19 looming large, the best the authorities could have done was to expedite the counselling and subsequent admission process but instead, there is inaction and lack of urgency in the matter," FORDA's letter read.

FORDA, on the other hand, wrote to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday, alerting him that the strike would resume on December 17. "Hence, as informed earlier, resident doctors are left with no choice but to go for withdrawal from all services (routine as well as emergency) in healthcare institutions, 17th December, 2021 onwards. The onus of this unfortunate situation affecting healthcare services is on the authorities," FORDA's letter further stated.

Resident doctors’ strike enters second day over NEET PG Counselling 

The three Centre-run hospitals and resident doctors of Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) have resumed the protest, according to FORDA president Dr Manish, and a call has been issued to other Resident Doctors Associations across the country to join in. Meanwhile, FORDA claims that "doctors at multiple healthcare institutions are being threatened in various ways to refrain from the agitation," according to a statement.

On Saturday, Akash Yadav, vice-president of the Resident Doctors Association of the Delhi government-run MAMC, reported that the hospital's resident doctors had begun their strike from Friday morning, boycotting all regular and emergency services, hampering patient care. MAMC has three affiliated hospitals: Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, GB Pant Hospital, and Guru Nanak Eye Centre. The LNJP is the city's largest government-run facility and the centre of the city's battle against the COVID-19 outbreak.

(With inputs from ANI)

Image: PTI