Maha: Over 7000 resident doctors on strike over better hostels, filling of vacant posts

Mumbai: Almost 7000 resident doctors attached to Maharashtra government medical Colleges and municipal corporation medical Colleges have entered their second day of protest as they continued to strike since Monday.

The doctors have started their agitation over a range of issues, including the quality of hostel facilities and the filling of vacant posts of assistant and associate professors.

The doctors under the banner of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), have stated that they were forced to take the extreme step of boycotting work as the authorities were not paying any attention to their long pending demands.

In a recent press release, BMC MARD stated, " the doctors have gone on mass leaves suspending elective services in the wards, OTs and OPDs while continuing to provide emergency services. A peaceful demonstration was held outside Nair hospital yesterday. However, despite all these measures MARD has not received any response from authorities and the government has paid no heed to any of the demands of the doctors. Hence due to the lack of any measures being taken for the same, the mass leave shall continue further. We, the resident doctors from KEM, Sion, Nair and Cooper hospital will gathered at KEM hospital today at 10:30 a.m. and they will continue their agitation further." 

Akshay Yadav, advisor BMC MARD and National IMA JDN standing committee member told Medical Dialogues, " Authorities have not called for an official meeting with us yet. We will continue our agitation till our demands are met. However, the protesting doctors made sure that emergency services are not disturbed."

He further added that a statement has been passed stating that Minister Mahajan said half of the demands of the striking doctors were being approved immediately, and Rs 12 crore has been given to the public works department (PWD) for repair works. But the association(who has organized this protest) is saying that nothing is there on paper. 

Demands of the resident doctors included: 

1. Increment in the number of bonded SR's (Senior Residents) posts and equal pay to all SR's.

2. According to GR, implementation of Dearness allowance (DA) in stipend and pending arrears since 2018.

3. Pending COVID arrears for NAIR residents.

4. Better hostel facilities and accommodation for all the SRs and SMOs(which is not given now).

5. Reduction of bond period of Maharashtra superspeciality resident doctors, from 2 years to 1 year.

6. Filling of vacancies of associate and assistant professors.