Stipend Hike: Bihar MBBS Interns withdraw strike after authorities assurance

Patna: The MBBS interns who were protesting across nine government medical colleges in Bihar as part of their demand for increasing the monthly stipend decided to call off their strike after receiving verbal assurance from the officials in the state health department.

The medicos resumed their duty on Friday after the health department officials that their issue would be considered sympathetically.

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The interns were demanding a raise in their monthly stipend from Rs 15,000 to Rs 35,000, claiming that their stipend is the lowest in India, according to a media report in the Hindustan Times.

Talking about their decision to withdraw the strike, a 2016-batch MBBS student at the PMCH said, "We have withdrawn our work boycott call following an assurance by Pratyaya Amrit, additional chief secretary, health, that our demands will be looked into sympathetically and expeditiously. We have resumed duty from Friday morning," adding, "If the government still does not listen to our demands and implement them, we will paralyze both emergency and OPD services."

Detailing their issues, the medico added, "MBBS students have been getting Rs 15,000 as monthly stipend during their internship period since 2013 in government medical colleges of Bihar. The health department had in April 2017 issued a letter mentioning that our stipend will be revised every three years, but has not done it so far."

The Junior Doctors' Association (JDA), in support of the protesting interns, tagged their demand as legitimate. The JDA president, PMCH, Dr. Manoranjan Kumar, speaking to HT, said, "Their (the MBBS interns) demands are genuine and the government should revise the stipend, which is due for revision since April last year."

The principal of PMCH, Dr. Vidyapati Choudhary, said that he had warned of taking action against the medicos if they refused to call off their strike and resume work. He added, "Our OPD services were partially affected for two days. I then warned the students of repercussions if they continued to disrupt hospital functioning and did not return to work. The medicos have joined their work today."

After completing the four university exams in four-and-a-half years of the MBBS course, the medicos have to go through a compulsory rotational internship for one year, for which they receive a fixed monthly stipend. The medicos are attached to different departments and perform the initial assessment of patients under the guidance of senior doctors during the internship period.